When Joseph Kelly was born on 10 February 1927, in Louisiana, United States, his father, Joseph Bennett Kelly, was 38 and his mother, Violet Helen Brisolara, was 28. He married Dorothy Ann Monjure on 11 August 1951, in Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He lived in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States in 1940. He died on 16 July 2003, in Kenner, Jefferson, Louisiana, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States.