Forty years later, the memory of Grace of Monaco provided discreetly
American actor Marlon Brando kisses Grace Kelly at the 1955 Academy Awards.
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World icon, muse of Alfred Hitchcock who launched her in 1954 in “The crime was almost perfect” then crowned with an Oscar in 1955 for “A girl from the province”, Grace Kelly prematurely said goodbye to a meteorological career, at 27 years, to marry in 1956 Prince Rainier III of Monaco, sovereign of a tiny Riviera principality, confetti wedged between France and Italy. In what sometimes seemed to become a golden prison for her, Princess Grace devoted herself to many charities and to her three children: Caroline and Stéphanie, who were born in 1957 and 1965 respectively, and Albert, born in 1958, who succeeded his father in 2005, when he died.
But on September 13, 1982, tragedy struck. Grace leaves the family residence at the wheel of her Rover, accompanied by her daughter Stéphanie. The car, in a yaw, leaves the steep road of Cap-d’Ail and stops 35 meters below. Victim of a cerebral hemorrhage and in a coma, she died the next day, aged 52. Stephanie, seriously injured, recovered.
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Grace is buried in Saint-Nicolas Cathedral in Monte-Carlo.
Very vivid memory
On April 19, 1958, Grace of Monaco presented her son Albert on the balcony of the Palace, her eldest daughter Caroline in the arms of Prince Rainier.
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“His memory is not only very vivid but it has passed through the generations who have taken the time to take an interest in my mother, in her life, in her image”, Prince Albert II testified on Sunday in an interview with the daily Monaco- Morning. However, “we thought that it was not absolutely useful to do something special for these 40 years”, added the sovereign, recognized that “documentaries, exhibitions, lots of events have recalled his memory “.
In the streets of Monaco, nostalgics can follow a permanent memorial route in the footsteps of the former princess consort, punctuated with explanatory panels, as in front of the Princess Grace Theater which she had relaunched and represented in 1981.
A member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 1985, Albert reminds us regularly: he created sports DNA in his maternal family. Driver of the Monegasque bobsleigh during five editions of the Winter Olympics, from 1988 to 2002, he succeeded his grandfather John Brendan Kelly, triple Olympic rowing champion from 1920 to 1924. As for his office, located on the top floor of the Clock Tower, in the Grimaldi Palace, which dates from the 13th century, is the one occupied by his mother. “When Rainier died, Albert could have taken over his father’s office but he did not,” the palace confides.
For Frédéric Laurent, writer, author of several works on the Rock, this anniversary date, “in the mind of the sovereign, it is something personal, family”: “They want to keep this dimension, without any desire to erase anything”, adds the one who was notably the author of “Monaco, the Rock of the Grimaldi”. A concert of Irish music will be given on Thursday by the Monaco Philharmonic Orchestra, in tribute to the roots of the Kelly family. The “Princess Grace Symphonic Suite” will be premiered there and performed by Irish violinist Frankie Gavin.