The Other Kelly Girl

Not sisters, not cousins, not even remotely related by blood, the two women were like chalk and cheese but, over a period of three decades, they became on-and-off “besties” who would eventually be neighbors in Monaco until their deaths… nearly twenty years apart.

Most people remember Kelly during the 1990s as the wickedly droll and unfiltered heart of the Le Texan restaurant and mother of the amazing Kate Powers, co-founder of the Stars’N’Bars restaurant.

Kelly was a flamboyant presence at the restaurant, usually sitting at Table 22 or the “family table” as it was known by Le Texan staff, including me, the restaurant’s numbers-challenged cashier.

After I left Le Texan in 1993 to join Kate and Didier Rubiolo to launch Stars’N’Bars, Kelly and I stayed in touch. She soon recruited me to help her write a book about her life in Monaco and her friendship with Grace. She had enlisted several friends earlier for the project, but we all gave up eventually, realizing that Kelly’s memory was sadly faltering and the best stories were actually a bit too personal and private to record. All of the Powers clan were fiercely protective of the privacy of the Princess and her family and over the years deflected hundreds of requests by major international media for “insider” interviews.

Still, there ARE some stories I can share to celebrate the unlikely but enduring friendship between these two unforgettable and uniquely original women from the United States.

Tennessee-born Kelly first met the young pre-Hollywood Grace Kelly in the late 1940s at an Annapolis Naval Academy cadet dance while visiting her brother, Walter. Philadelphia-bred Grace was escorted by another cadet. It was probably here that the “Kelly Girls” sobriquet originated between them.

They kept in touch and soon found themselves together again at the Barbizon Hotel for Women in New York City. Grace was attending the American Academy of Arts and appearing successfully in Broadway productions. Shortly after her graduation, she was named “Most Promising Personality of the Broadway Stage of 1950” by Theatre World Magazine.

Kelly became a Copa Girl, a glamorous dancer and showgirl at the infamous nightclub Copacabana where she nightly balanced on a swing as Tony Bennett crooned to a mixed crowd of celebrities, tycoons and the Mob.

The Mob, it seemed, had a soft spot for the little redhead from Memphis (according to Kelly) and made sure she was escorted safely back to the hotel after each show.

Grace eventually made the big move to Hollywood and later to Monaco as an elegant and sublimely regal Princess. Kelly left behind the plumed headpieces and rhinestone bustiers of the Copacabana to marry Bob Powers, an insurance salesman from St. Louis, Missouri. In quick succession, they had three children, Mike, Kate and Rainey.

Twelve years later, Kelly was divorced and in love with the Belgian Edouard Van Remoortel, who became conductor of the Monte Carlo Symphony. Kelly uprooted her family to join him in the Principality and soon Princess Grace was Matron of Honor at their wedding. The Kelly girls were back!

The Princess was delighted to have an American “gal pal” nearby, especially with children near the age of her own offspring. They organized joint family outings, and the Princess even initiated a Halloween Party for local children and later celebrated the Fourth of July with cowboys and Indians.

Kelly and the Princess shared a ceramics class and the two would often spend hours sitting on the floor at the palace where Grace would sketch dress designs that could be passed on to couturiers. Sometimes they would pack their bicycles in the Princess’s personal London Cab for a spin in the country or go to Nice for retail therapy. One day, on a shopping trip, they eluded their driver and sneaked into Galeries Lafayette. Unfortunately, Grace was recognized immediately, and a large crowd began to surround the two who hid behind a counter until the store security arrived.

Always the entertainer, Kelly was happy to become part of Monaco society and enjoyed dressing up for the various galas and parties. At one “fancy dress” event she showed up sporting a third leg. Prince Rainier recognized that his wife’s American friend was incorrigibly irreverent and on one occasion gifted her with a gold ring in the form of her favorite four-letter word.

CARRYING ON

Tragically, several devastating losses would cast a long shadow over Kelly’s life - with the untimely deaths of Edouard, their son Patrick, and eventually her dearest friend Grace.

Yet reinvention was second nature to her. In true Kelly fashion, she found new purpose and joy in launching Le Texan, Monaco’s first American restaurant, christened by Prince Rainier himself.

There, amid the laughter, the storytelling, and the familiar sizzle of the legendary fajitas, Kelly Powers continued to dazzle - eternally copper-haired, quick-witted, and unapologetically bold - keeping the spirit of the “Kelly Girls” alive in the Principality they both came to call home.