Gone but not forgotten
Lucy O’Reilly Schell
The first American woman to compete in a Grand Prix was also a distinguished rally driver and team owner
WORDS DELWYN MALLETT
COURTESY RICHARD ADATTO
OCTANE READERS
are likely to be aware of Harry Schell, the first American to participate in the modern Grand Prix era (although he was born in France and lived most of his life there – see Octane 62) but few will know much, if anything, of his spirited mother, herself a Grand Prix driver, rally driver and race team owner in the 1930s.
Lucy O’Reilly was born in Brunoy, south of Paris, in 1896. Her father Francis Patrick O’Reilly was the son of Irish immigrants and made a fortune in construction and investing in factories in his hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania. At the age of 46 he decided to devote the rest of his life to enjoying his money and travelling the world and, in 1896, while in Paris, he married Henriette Celestine Roudet, who gave birth to Lucy, within the year.