Spare Change: Katey Grovell, the Queen of Broadway, was a well-liked figure in Newport
The queen died last week at age 96. Elizabeth?
No, Catherine “Katey" Grovell, the Queen of Broadway, left us a week ago.
Katey was the tiny woman who patrolled Broadway on foot for years, stopping at various spots such as Cumby’s, the Hungry Monkey and the old Dunkin’ Donuts (together Katey and Hank Lawler provided serious star power).
She loved to drive friends to Green Airport or to supermarkets. An athlete at Rogers High, she reportedly once played catch with Sachel Paige at Cardines Field. In 2018, she was inducted into the Sunset League Hall of Fame.
Katey took part in the Senior Olympics into her 90s. And she was probably among the last people to have worked at the old Newport Torpedo Station.
She loved animals, especially elephants, and affixed elephant pins to her hats.
Katey knew the scuttlebutt along Broadway. But she wasn’t much of a tipster to this reporter. “I don’t like to say bad things about people “ she explained.
• It’s been 21 years since 9/11. And I’m afraid it is beginning to fade just slightly.
If you’re now between the ages of, say, 40 and 80, you probably recall where you were, those you were with, the gut feeling that hit you when the plane two crashed into the second World Trade Center tower.
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This was no accident. It was an attack.
On Sept. 11, 2001, it was easy to feel as if the country was crumbling because of an enemy we could not identify, a band of outlaws.
After the ramming of the Pentagon and the downed plane in Pennsylvania, we waited for the next massive attack.
It never happened. And the successful killing of Osama bin Laden relaxed us a bit.
So, 21 years later, the terrorism has turned domestic. The events of Jan. 6, 2021, were no less significant than 9/11, just homegrown.
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We witnessed Americans, egged on by a sitting president with no tolerance for democracy, attacking the Capitol, retired or off-duty cops beating Capitol police, maniacs hunting Mike Pence.
It’s a story to be continued.
But 9/11 is hitting fade mode. After my lifetime, they will trot out the final 9/11 survivors before TV cameras as they do now with those who fought on D-Day. I fear for what kind of terrorism we’ll see between now and then.
• A longtime family friend died from COVID complications last week. It’s a reminder how powerful this insidious disease remains.
Not everyone concurs. In June, an old friend who lives in Mexico walked through Logan Airport while wearing a mask. A passerby volunteered this: “Take off that monkey mask. That hoax is over.”
Still no vaccine for ignorance, eh?
• Trinity Church will hold a memorial service to honor England’s Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday at 6 p.m.
The queen attended a service at Trinity when she visited Newport in 1976. Church member Lyle Confrey said the church holds a memorial service when a British king/queen dies. The last was in 1952 upon the death of King George VI, the queen’s father.
• Seeing the news footage from 1976 of the queen and Buddy Cianci made me wish to hear an extended conversation between those two.
• Gov. Dan McKee manages to squeak out victories. He barely won the race for lieutenant governor years back and this week he managed a lackluster win over newcomer Helena Foulkes.
Far-right Republican opponent Ashley Kalus (a fan of book-banning Ron Desantis) is probably too extreme to win in Rhode Island.
But the GOP should be thrilled that McKee (treated like the court jester by former Gov. Gina Raimondo) is the opponent and not the high-energy Foulkes.
Jim Gillis is a Daily News columnist. Send him email at jimgillis13@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Katey Grovell, the Queen of Broadway, was a figure in Newport RI
