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Gov. Mike Parson has congratulated Houston in conjunction with this year’s Emmett Kelly Clown Festival on April 29.
This year marks what would have been Emmett Kelly Sr.’s 125th birthday.
Kelly was born in 1898 in Sedan, Kan., and grow up in Texas County east of Houston. Kelly identified his famous clown character as Weary Willie, a hobo traveling on trains throughout southern Missouri during the Great Depression.
He was famous for film, television, as an artist and a performer with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. In 1998, Missouri inducted Kelly into the Hall of Famous Missourians at the state capitol.
“Teresa and I congratulate the citizens of Houston as you celebrate Mr. Kelly’s 125th birthday. We send best wishes for an enjoyable event,” Parson said.