Grace buried in private ceremony

Press, 20 September 1982, Page 8

Grace buried in private ceremony

NZPA-Reuter .Monte Carlo The grief-stricken Royal Family 'of Monaco buried Princess Grace, the former > Hollywood film star. Grace Kelly, at an intimate private ceremony yesterday morning (New Zealand time). The burial service in the Chapel of Princes in Monaco’s Saint Nicholas Cathedral contrasted sharply with the morning’s formal Requiem Mass for the 52-year-old Princess, who died after a car crash.

Then, several thousand people climbed to the hilltop palace where the Princess’ body had lain in state for three days and watched the funeral procession march to the nearby cathedral. Dignitaries, European royalty and former Hollywood friends attended the Mass. Among them were NancyReagan, and the Princess of Wales. But only a few hundred people watched at the end of a hot Mediterranean afternoon when Prince Rainier,

aged 59, his daughter, Caroline, aged 25, and his heir, 24-year-old Prince Albert, arrived for the burial. The Royal Family appeared deeply distressed and tired as they re-entered the cathedral to watch the Princess’s mahogany coffin lowered into the Grimaldi family crypt. Princess Caroline’s face was swollen from weeping and her brother guided her out of and back into their car. The three had been driven

from the nearby palace, while the other members of the family, including Princess Grace’s brother, Jack, and her sisters, Peggy Conlon and Liza Levin, walked. At the morning Mass the Archbishop of Monaco, the Most Rev. Charles Brandt, said in leading prayers for the soul of the Princess: "Lord, we weep for our Princess Grace, and the brutality of her death adds to our grief. We beg you, grant her the happiness of unity with Christ in the mystery of his Resurrection.”