Katharine, the Duchess of Kent, a member of the British royal family who was a longtime patron of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, died on Thursday in London. She was 92.
Buckingham Palace announced her death but did not provide additional details.
The duchess kept a low profile for a member of the royal family, fulfilling less visible duties and steering clear of scandal at a time when more prominent royals were sometimes embroiled in it.
To those who were not regular royal watchers, she was best known for comforting the losing finalist Jana Novotna in 1993 at Wimbledon, where the duchess was a regular. As The New York Times wrote at the time, Novotna “cried on the well-tailored shoulder of the Duchess of Kent.”
Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley was born on Feb. 22, 1933, in Hovingham, in Yorkshire, England, the daughter of William Worsley, a knighted wealthy landowner, and Joyce Morgan Brunner.
Though not royal, her family was aristocratic — she was born in the Hovingham Hall estate, on land the family had owned for 400 years — and she mixed with the smart set.
That led her to meeting Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, a grandson of King George V and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. She married him in 1961 in York Minster, the Gothic cathedral in York, and became the duchess.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nytimes.com ’
