It’s History by Fred Miller

Remembering the Kelly Family

By Fred Miller

John B. Kelly congratulates his son Jack (middle) and Joe Regan after they won the South Jersey doubles rowing race on September 1, 1944. Left: Future movie actress Grace Kelly was just a baby when her family began visiting Ocean City from their home in Philadelphia. The family built a summer home at 2536 Wesley Avenue in 1931.They stayed at the Flanders Hotel while the house was being completed. In this photograph, taken in the lobby of the Flanders, Grace (center) poses with her brother Jack and her sister Peggy.

THE LEGENDARY LOCALS of Ocean City book, written by Fred and Susan Miller, includes two pages on the Kelly Family.

The John B. Kelly Sr. family lived in Philadelphia, but had a summer home at 2536 Wesley Avenue in Ocean City. Kelly Sr. won gold medals in the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games for doubles sculls rowing and, in 1920, also for singles sculls rowing. He was a strong supporter of the Ocean City Beach Patrol and a close friend of lifeguard captain Jack G. Jernee. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Kelly as the director-general of physical training.

John B. Kelly Jr., known a Jack, was a member of the Ocean City Beach Patrol from 1942 to 1944. He was a champion rower for the lifeguards. He completed in the 1948, 1952, 1956, and 1960 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal for singles sculls rowing in 1956.

Grace Kelly was in her first movie, Fourteen Hours, in 1951, and went on to star in many more. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for Country Girl in 1954. In 1956, she left films to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco. Princess Grace and her husband often brought their children to visit her parents in Ocean City.

Peggy, the oldest sibling, and Lizanne Kelly, the youngest, were big supporters of Jack and Grace, and Ocean City.

Right: Clyde W. Struble, mayor of Ocean City, presents the Ocean City Beach Patrol doubles rowing championship trophies to Jack Kelly Jr. (left) and Joe Regan on August 18, 1944.

Far right: Lizanne Kelly, younger sister of Jack and Grace, presented the John B. Kelly Sr. rowing trophies to George Weissberg (left) and Bob Harbaugh at the 1949 Ocean City Lifeguard Ball.

Five months after their wedding, Princess Grace and Prince Rainier visited her parents in Ocean City on September 12, 1956.

John B. Kelly and son Jack show off their winning rowing techniques to the Kelly women, (from left) Peggy, Grace, mother Margaret, and Lizanne, in this 1947 photo.

The Legendary Locals of Ocean City book, written by Fred and Susan Miller, was published in 2012. The 38th Ocean City Baby Parade was held on August 14, 1947. Jack Kelly, a former Ocean City Beach Patrol member who had gained fame earlier that summer by winning the Diamond Sculls event of the Royal Henley Regatta in England, was an honored guest. Standing with him in the lifeboat is, second from the left, his 17-year-old sister Grace, a future Academy Award-winning movie actress who became Princess Grace when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956.

John B. Kelly built this house for his family’s summer home in 1931 at 2536 Wesley Avenue.