In 1962, Kelley allegedly was expelled from the University of Arizona in lieu of police filing criminal charges for grand larceny against her, according to the biography "Poison Pen" by George Carpozi Jr. The stolen items were expensive pieces of jewelry that Kelley's fellow students had kept in their dorm rooms. During the aftermath of her leaving the University of Arizona, her parents refused to let her live with them and sent her to live in Seattle with her maternal grandparents, the Martins. It was there that Kelley suffered a breakdown and used a wheelchair during some of that time. After this eight-month hiatus, Kelley surfaced at the University of Washington, where she received a B.A. in English. She worked at the 1964 New York World's Fair and went on to become a receptionist-press secretary for Senator Eugene McCarthy.