Kelly Velazquez Camacho

Kelly Velazquez Camacho is a main character in Red Star, being the mother of Gary and Scott Camacho and the mother figure of Richard Greenhill. She is the wife of Rodney Camacho. She cares very deeply about Scott and Richard and their well beings. She views Richard as a son just as much as Scott.

A 6th grade English teacher, Kelly was trained to recognize effects of child abuse. In the early months of 1980, she was desperate to have Richard taken from his parents after fully realizing the conditions he lived in, though Richard was forced to reveal his lycanthropy in order to prevent her from calling for help, as doing so would put his life in danger in several different ways. Stunned by the revelation, Kelly was distraught to learn that she could not contact child protective services, and made it her duty to keep Richard and his secret as safe as possible. She quickly became a provider for much of Richard's clothing, food, and other necessities that his own parents often failed to provide. Richard's parents were initially pissed that another person was caring for their child, believing themselves perfectly capable of caring for Richard, though after a while they begrudgingly allowed it after realizing that Richard's work was improving, though they remained irritated by the fact. Kelly quickly became Richard's mother figure, and he viewed her as a mother over his biological mother.

Kelly was orphaned at the age of 5 after both of her parents were killed in a car accident. With no outside family to reach out to, Kelly was subjected to a nearby foster care. She lived with foster parents with several other children, none of whom had any interest in her, making her very lonely until she met Rodney, a young boy her age that suffered from similar issues. The two quickly bonded and became inseparable. They began dating in middle school. After Kelly accidentally became pregnant shortly before graduating high school, Rodney's mother Rosa offered to help the two take care of the child. However, Rodney angrily denied her, and following their graduation, the two ran off, and Rodney told his mother not to follow them. Rodney began attending college that fall and took up two jobs to take care of Kelly. Their first son Gary was born in January of 1953. Both parents alternated in taking their newborn son with them to classes. After graduating college, Rodney and Kelly were finally able to marry in 1956. Rodney then began attending medical school while Kelly took up student teaching.

She is heavily based on my 3rd grade teacher in both appearance and personality, whose name was also Kelly.