It was the summer of 1979. School was out for the summer, and Park Hill High School Senior Eric Cross was getting ready to pack up and leave for his first semester at Drury University. He had one issue though: he needed to break up with his girlfriend. He’d been dating Lisa Wilcox for six weeks and when it came time for him to hit the road, he did what a lot of teenage boys do – he ghosted her.
“I didn't have the emotional intelligence to break up,” Cross says, explaining that Wilcox was a couple years younger than he was and still needed to finish high school. “I didn't think it was fair to her to ever commit to a guy living four hours away.”
Cross thought he would never see Lisa again. He tried, years later, to reconnect but those efforts went nowhere. Then, one September night in 1987 after a KU game, he and his friends met up at their favorite post-game gathering place: Kelly’s Westport Inn.
Cross and his friends were standing by a pillar near the entrance drinking beer when the door whooshed open and in walked Wilcox, who was on a set-up date she didn’t want to be on. Eventually all of their friends (and Wilcox's failed date) left Kelly’s. Cross stuck around to keep her company.
“I just thought he was being a good friend — really nice, you know, ‘Let me save you from this horrible date you don't wanna be on,’” says Lisa Cross. “And we were on the stairs right next to Californos and he kissed me and that's when I knew.”
Exactly one year after that fateful night in Kelly’s, Lisa and Eric Cross got married. Eric calls it “divine intervention.”
“I didn't think we'd ever run into each other again. And that's why it's just really kind of a religious place for me,” said Eric Cross. “It's worked out beautifully.”
As Kelly’s celebrates its 75th anniversary, hundreds of couples and longtime patrons are reminiscing on their time at the beloved bar. The warmly lit Irish pub has been the backdrop for historic celebrations — like when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 1970 and again in 2020 — hosted thousands of partying college students, and been a regular meet-up for patrons who have been frequenting the spot for decades.
Colleen Kelly, a co-owner of Kelly’s, says she has heard so many stories from couples that met at her family’s pub that at one time, she tried to keep track of them. She calls them "Kelly’s couples."
“Then I was like, this just isn't possible. Because it's constantly, it's like constantly growing, I mean every weekend,” says Kelly.
The thing about Kelly’s couples, she says, is that they always come back.
“A lot of what I see on the couples that come here in between their wedding and their reception is, they met here and they come to have a drink on their wedding day. We get a lot of that.”
There’s even a growing tag on Instagram, #kellyscouple, where people post wedding, engagement, or other milestones with their partner at Kelly’s.
The Cross family
Their wedding in 1988 wasn’t the end of the love affair between the Cross family and Kelly’s. Eric and Lisa Cross are regulars and say they always meet up at the place they reconnected all those years ago — at the pillar near the entrance. They’ve had countless celebrations and family gatherings at Kelly’s, and when each of their two daughters turned 21, it was the first place they took them.
Eric says their oldest daughter, Morgan Thomsen, has her own Kelly’s love story, although he says it’s slightly less romantic. Morgan Thomsen vaguely knew her now-husband, Travis Thomsen, but wasn’t really interested.
The two stumbled into one another at Kelly’s and Cross says Travis was so nervous to run into Morgan that he ended up embarrassing himself.
“He knocked over a pizza. And anyways, two weeks later they started dating and now they're married.”
The Davies
Courtney Davies and her husband, Brandan Davies, met at Kelly’s in 2006.
Brandan and some friends were at Kelly’s celebrating because he’d just passed the LSAT to get into law school. After talking her up at the bar, Brandan got Courtney’s number. Courtney says he called her later to ask her out and she turned him down – but he wasn’t quite ready to give up.
“You said... I'm only gonna ask three times and then I'm not asking anymore,” says Courtney.
On the third call, Courtney agreed to go on a date. The couple dated for six years and married in 2012. In December, they’ll celebrate ten years. The Davies say even though they have children now and go out less, Kelly’s will always hold a special place in their hearts.
“I mean Kelly's is a landmark, everybody that's ever went out and had fun in Kansas City knows about Kelly's,” says Brandan.
Courtney agrees.
“You just say, you say, “Where did you meet?’ And you say, ‘Kelly's’ – you don't have to explain anymore.”
The Weissers
Raeanne Weisser and her husband, Donn Weisser, are another Kelly’s couple. Back in the 80’s, Raeanne was divorced and living with friends, and a regular in the Westport scene.
“In those days, bands played Wednesday to Saturday nights in many bars and we loved to dance,” says Raeanne, reminiscing. “Back then, Kelly's only had a jukebox, no live music, but there were great songs on that jukebox. Everyone started and ended at Kelly's.”
It was at the end of one of those nights in October 1982 after going to a rodeo with her girlfriends, that Raeanne found herself, once again, at Kelly’s.
“After drinking all day at the rodeo and into the evening at Kelly's, I met a man named Donn,” she says. “I had never seen him before that night. We sat in a booth at Kelly's and talked about everything.”
Raeanne and Donn were married two years later in Loose Park. They have two daughters and four grandchildren. She says they still frequent Kelly’s often, especially for Thanksgiving eve festivities.
When Kansas City residents think of Kelly’s, they may not think “romance” — and the bar has likely seen its share of break-ups, one-night-stands, awkward first dates and jilted lovers. But the ones who stick, tend to stick around.
Longtime Kelly’s bartender Jim Waters says that’s because of the close-knit atmosphere that the Kelly’s family has worked to create.
“I think that's a major reason why most people, a lot of people continue to come back to Kelly's, cause they know they get treated like family.”
How to celebrate Kelly’s 75th
Kelly’s is hosting an all-day anniversary bash Saturday, September 17. Doors open at 11 a.m. From 11 to 1 p.m., there will be a reunion for former staff. Guest bartenders and performers will also be in attendance. More details can be found on Kelly’s website.
