Amazing Graces Trivia Quiz

Answer: Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly was an American movie actress who in 1956 married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
Ms Kelly was the star of many great films, including 'High Noon' and 'High Society', but gave up acting when she married her prince.

Her beautiful wedding dress was designed by Helen Rose of MGM, and has been inspiring lookalike dresses ever since. Elegant and simple, it was the perfect dress for a princess, and it is said to have inspired the design of Catherine Middleton's dress when she married Prince William.

Grace and Rainier had three children, Caroline, Stéphanie and Albert.
Grace was killed in 1982 when she suffered a stroke whilst driving, and lost control of the car. She died the next day. Princess Stéphanie, who was with her, survived with some injuries.
Prince Rainier died in 2005 and is buried beside his wife in the Grimaldi vault in Monaco. Their son Albert now reigns as Albert II of Monaco with his wife Princess Charlene.

Answer: Grace Bumbry

Grace Bumbry is an African-American singer with an amazing vocal range. She has sung both as a soprano and as a mezzo-soprano.

Grace made her debut in Paris in 1960 and is still performing although she is over 80 years of age.
She has been awarded many honours in respect of her work.

Answer: W.G. Grace

Dr. W.G. Grace came from a family of great cricketers, and two of his brothers played Test Cricket for England in the same team as WG, as he was known. The phenomenon of three brothers playing cricket for their country in the same team was not repeated until the Mohammad brothers represented Pakistan v New Zealand in Karachi in 1969.

Born in 1848 William Gilbert Grace is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of cricket, which he played at the same time as carrying on his career as a doctor. His career spanned 43 years, which in itself is amazing. Not only that, but in his youth he was a champion 440 yd hurdler.

Grace died in 1915 from a cerebral haemorrhage.

Answer: Gracie Allen

Gracie Allen, born in 1895, played the zany comic foil to her husband George Burns. Burns and Allen starred in many shows and movies and were together for more than 40 years, until Gracie's death in 1964.

George, of course, famously went on to see his 100th birthday in 1996 despite his well-known cigar habit.

It's worth googling Gracie to see some of the crazy sayings she came out with:
'When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half' is just one of them.

Answer: Grace Jones

Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American with an impressive CV. She is a singer, song writer, actress and model, who once shared an apartment in Paris with Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange

Famous for her height (around 5ft 10'), androgynous appearance, manner and angular clothing, Grace had a major influence on fashion in the 1980s and was listed as one of the Best Dressed over 50s by the "Guardian" newspaper in 2013.

Answer: Gracie Fields

'Our Gracie', as she was known, was born in Rochdale in 1898 and enjoyed a long career as a singer and in films.
She was married three times, and spent many years living on the Isle of Capri with her last husband, Boris Alperovici.
Her songs ranged from funny -'The Biggest Aspidistra in the World", to romantic -'Red Sails in the Sunset", but her signature tune for which she is probably best known was 'Sally'.

As a child in the 1950s I can remember a time when you could hardly turn on the wireless (as we quaintly called it in Britain) to listen to a music programme without hearing Gracie's voice, and she appeared in many Royal Variety Shows over the years.

She was very active in charitable work, and despite being in recovery from a cancer operation, she threw herself into entertaining the troops during WW2.

In 1938 Gracie was awarded the the CBE for Services to Entertainment and in 1979, not long before she died, she was invested as a Dame by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Answer: Archibald Gracie

Archibald Gracie was a New York merchant who had the house built in 1799, in Carl Schurtz Park.
Sadly, in 1823 he got into debt and had to sell the house, which overlooks the Hell Gate channel in the East River in Manhattan. The house changed hands several times and was at one time the Museum of the City of New York, but in 1942 it was taken over by Fiorello H. La Guardia to be the official residence of the Mayor of New York. In the 1960s it was renovated and extended, and in 1975 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It is a two story house built of wood in the Federal Style, and its proper name is the Archibald Gracie Mansion, but nowadays it's usually just called Gracie Mansion.

Answer: Grace Poole

Grace Poole features in Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre'.

In fact, this is a trick question, because the mad woman in question was really Mrs Rochester, the wife of Jane's employer Edward Rochester, and Grace Poole was her nurse and attendant.

In the book, Jane is the governess to Mr Rochester's ward Adèle, and she keeps hearing the eerie screams and cries of the mad woman in the attic, which are passed off as being made by a servant, Grace Poole.
The truth emerges, of course, when Jane becomes engaged to marry Mr Rochester and his mad wife finds out and escapes, and burns the house down.

If you haven't read this book, you are missing a treat.

Answer: Grace Hopper

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was a Rear Admiral in the US Navy, and was a computer scientist.

Born in 1906, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark 1 Computer, and believed that computers programming language should be as easily understood as English. She was instrumental in the development of COBOL. She was a leader in the field of of software development, and helped in the development of the UNIVAC hardware used by NASA for the Apollo programme.

Altogether an amazing woman.

Answer: Grace Darling

Grace Darling was the daughter of the William Darling, Keeper of the Longstone Lighthouse in Northumberland. Longstone Island is part of the Farne Islands which are low lying, beautiful and dangerous, with abundant seabirds and seals.

In 1838 Grace was looking out of the window of her room and saw the paddle steamer 'Forfarshire' on the rocks of a nearby low lying island. The ship was broken in two and one part had sunk during the night. Despite the heavy seas, Grace and her father took their rowing boat out to the ship and rescued four men and a woman. They brought them ashore and then William and three of the men they had rescued went back and rescued four more men. Nine others saved themselves in the ship's lifeboat. The rest of the 62 people on board perished.
Grace was 23 at the time.
As the news spread, Grace and her father were the heroes of the hour, and were awarded Silver Medals for bravery, as well as more than £700 raised in donations.
In 1842 Grace fell ill while visiting relatives on the mainland, and died of Tuberculosis at Bamburgh. She is buried with her mother and father in the churchyard of St Aidan's church in Bamburgh.
There were many paintings made celebrating her bravery, and William Wordsworth wrote a poem in her honour called 'Grace Darling'.
A true heroine for any age.