Riviera Reporter
Riviera Reporter
THE FRENCH RIVIERA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWS MAGAZINE
THE FRENCH RIVIERA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWS MAGAZINE

Avery Glize-Kane: Obituary

Avery Glize-Kane “Class, grace and passion ... all rolled into one” The Anglophone community of the Riviera has lost one of its brightest stars. Avery Glize-Kane passed away on January 8th, 2016, at the age of 76, after a long fight against cancer. Avery was such a vital and exuberant presence in our lives; it is difficult to imagine that her light has now been extinguished.

In 1987, Avery founded the French Riviera-Monaco Council of the Navy League, and remained its President for 20 years, after which she became Honorary President. She had long been the Consular Agent of the United States in Nice, and only retired last year; that office is now closed. In June 1995, she was awarded the Meritorious Public Service Citation by the Secretary of the US Navy, and in the same year, the Gold Medal of the City of Cannes.

The American Club of the Riviera also benefitted from Avery’s wisdom for the many years she served as an Officer-Legal Advisor. As the Club’s President, I had the privilege of working and playing with her at stimulating meetings and wonderful social events.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Avery first came to France in her very early twenties to perfect her French, went back to the States, and then returned in 1961 to marry Jean Glize, who died in 2004. She also joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Nice, graduating in 1966. In her early career she worked at the office of Maître Pierre Curatti on rue d’Antibes in Cannes, and later opened her own practice nearby in her beautiful residence on Boulevard de la Republique, at which she remained until her passing.

We all have our personal memories of Avery. Mine is her joy at the piano bar of the Martinez Hotel in Cannes during the years that the buoyant and talented Jimmy McKissic played and sang The Great American Songbook. To share with Avery one of these Friday evenings of cocktails and music was a very special pleasure.

She will be missed by so many of us.

Avery’s dear friend, Anne Tormey, commented, “When they made Avery, they broke the mold. She was unique … kind, generous, witty, elegant, classy, just and fair. But above all, she had an unsurpassed sense of fun and the ridiculous, which we shared every day.”

She is survived by her daughter Ferney Glize-Santini, son-in-law Jean-Jacques Santini, and their two children, Jean-Yves and Lauren, and by her three brothers: James Kane, Michael Kane and Steven Renehan.

Yet Avery Glize-Kane is also survived by her countless friends, who gathered at Holy Trinity Cannes on January 19th to say farewell, perhaps evoking sentiments written by Ira Gershwin and sung by Mr McKissic at the Martinez: “The memory of all that, no, no, they can’t take that away from me.”

Popular: Riviera Community