Leslie King Grenier has spent 30 years fundraising for Ireland throughout the U.S. A board member of the American Ireland Fund, King Grenier tells how her grandparents met.

“My grandmother Eliza Willis, born 1881, came through Ellis Island to Brooklyn to work as a nanny and housekeeper for a wealthy widower, Theodore Burnett. They fell in love and married and had my mother and her sister,” she says.

King Grenier has been to Ireland once a year for the past 30 years, and says flying into Ireland, seeing the green carpeted and square landscape dotted with sheep always makes her smile.

“Irish heritage means a wonderful connection to a most beautiful country and to generations of charming, witty, wonderful people,” says King Grenier.  

“Growing up as a child, my family was very proud of their Irish heritage, and we celebrated our Irishness through all weddings, births and deaths.”

King Grenier is married with six children.

 

 

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