#peggy kelly davis conlan

[gracie-bird]

Princess Grace and her sister Peggy and youngest daughter, Princess Stephanie, at a funfair in Monaco in November 1969.

[anothergracekellyblog]

Jack and Marge Kelly’s girls all grown up: Princess Grace of Monaco poses with her sisters, Peggy (far left) and Lizanne (middle), and her adorably elfin offspring, Princess Stéphanie, in the Palais Princier. Circa 1969

SOURCE: Albert II de Monaco, l'homme et le prince by Isabelle Rivère & Peter Mikelbank / © Georges Lukomski | Archives du Palais Princier de Monaco

[princessgracekelly1956]

Philadelphia Daily News - December 7 1991

DEATHS

Peggy Kelly Conlan, Princess Grace’s sister

by Kathy Sheehan

Daily News Staff Writer

Margaret “Peggy” Conlan, the oldest sister of the late Princess Grace of Monaco and former city Councilman John B. Kelly Jr., died Nov. 23 after a long illness. She was 65 and lived in Fairmount.

Though she didn’t achieve the fame of her Hollywood actress-turned-princess sister, she was regarded by many people as more beautiful than Grace, who died in a car accident in 1982.

“She was very attractive, very witty,” said her sister, Lizanne LeVine.

In the days before and after Grace Kelly’s 1956 storybook wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, Conlan often made headlines of her own with her humorous quips and her polite but down-to-earth manners. She raised eyebrows when she and her daughters wore shorts to a luncheon with Monaco’s royal family before the elegant wedding.

“Lunch was great fun,” she said after appearing in black flannel Bermuda shorts. Her first husband, George F. “Gabby” Davis, wore a tomato-red linen jacket and a loud black and yellow plaid sports shirt with dark slacks. The girls wore shorts made from the same plaid of their father’s shirt.

Though the shorts made headlines, Conlan clearly was enjoying herself. “Gabby really knocked their eyes out,” she told reporters.

After Princess Grace’s marriage, Prince Rainier offered titles to his in-laws, but Conlan scoffed at the idea.

“I want to go home just a plain American citizen,” she said. “Imagine what our friends in Philadelphia would say if we came back as dukes or counts. Or fancy one of father’s friends calling him ‘Milord’ or ‘Your Grace.’“

Conlan attended Raven Hill Academy and graduated from the Stevens Academy in Germantown. She also spent one year at the now defunct Marjorie Webster Junior College in Washington, D.C.

She was married and divorced twice, first to Davis, and later to Eugene Conlan.

She enjoyed swimming and diving and helping out in various charitable organizations. She made many charitable gifts to the Woman’s Medical College, now the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and to the Vesper Boat Club.

Her brother, Jack, who died in 1985, and her father, John B. Jr., were Olympic champion rowers and patrons of the Vesper Boat Club.

Conlan also had an artistic streak. She painted portraits and landscapes, decorated various objects with sea shells she found on the beach near her family’s Ocean City, N.J., home and completely redesigned an old store she bought in the Art Museum area to live in.

“She had a lot of artistic sense,” her sister said.

In addition to her sister, she is survived by two daughters, Margaret Rowe and Mary Lee Kenworthy, and eight grandchildren.

Burial was at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham Township.

[gracie-bird]

Princess Grace and her sisters, Lizanne and Peggy, at a theatric play at Ravenhill Academy in the late 1930s.

[gracie-bird]

Princess Grace with her sister Peggy and her children - Princess Stephanie and Prince Albert - at a funfair in Monaco, in November 1969.

[gracie-bird]

Princess Grace's mother and sister - Peggy Davis and Mrs. John B. Kelly accompanied by a small group of friend ladies from Philadelphia, including Pauline McCloskey  "Aunt Flossy"- leaving Excelsior Hotel in Naples, Italy on April 27, 1956.

After Princess Grace and Prince Rainier's wedding, Mrs John B Kelly and her elder daughter, Margaret "Peggy" Davis, took the opportunity to make a trip to Italy.

Credits to Archivio Fotografico Carbone (Napoli).

[gracie-bird]

John and Margaret Kelly with their eldest children, Margaret "Peggy" and John B. Jr "Kell", in Philadelphia, circa 1930.

[gracie-bird]

Margaret Katherine "Peggy" Kelly, elder sister of Princess Grace of Monaco, in the 1940s.

[gracie-bird]

PEGGY & GEORGE'S WEDDING

Wedding of Princess Grace's eldest sister, Margaret Katherine "Peggy", with George Liddell Davis Jr. on August 24, 1944, in Northfield, Atlantic, New Jersey, USA. They had two daughters, Margaret Ann "Megan" and Mary Lee.

The couple divorced in 1959.

[gracie-bird]

Miss Margaret "Meg" Davis at age 10 in Monaco during Princess Caroline's presentation to the Monegasque people in January 1957. Meg is the niece of Princess Grace of Monaco and the godmother of Princess Caroline. She was the de eldest daughter of Peggy Conlan Davis (née Kelly). She only had another sister, Mary Lee Kenworthy Jones (née Davis).

[gracie-bird]

Margaret Kelly Davis Conlan, elder sister of Princess Grace in 1983, she was 56 years old in this picture.

[gracie-bird]

PEGGY & GEORGE.

Princess Grace’s elder sister, Margaret Katharine “Peggy”, with her first husband George Liddell Davis Jr. I. in Ocean City, N.J., in the summer of 1948.

The Davis got married on August 24, 1944 in Northfield Atlantic, N.J. and divorced in 1959, 15 years later. They had two daughters: Margaret Ann “Megan” and Mary Lee. 

“Her Name Was Grace Kelly” by Serge de Sampigny (2020).

[gracie-bird]

Princess Grace siblings at her funeral in 1982

[gracie-bird]

Picture of Princess Grace’s mother (Margaret Kelly), sister Peggy (Conlan Davis) and niece (Mary Lee Jones Kenworthy) with her daughters in Júpiter Beach, FL. in the late 60s.