Kay Halle, a glamorous Cleveland department store heiress who befriended and bewitched luminaries on both sides of the Atlantic, died Aug. 7 in her home in Washington. She was 93.
She was a product of a union between a wealthy German-Jewish merchant–a founder of the Halle Brothers department store–and an Irish-Catholic woman.
In a remarkable life she formed enduring relationships with George Gershwin, Randolph Churchill, W. Averell Harriman, Joseph P. Kennedy, Walter Lippmann and Buckminster Fuller, among other diverse figures.
She had a flair for friendship and a knack for bringing people together, as well as a career in journalism and with American intelligence in World War II.
She wrote for The Cleveland Plain Dealer and other publications, conducted radio interviews with public figures and provided intermission commentary for the Cleveland Orchestra.
Miss Halle, who never married, once showed a friend a list of 64 men who had proposed to her, among them a youthful Churchill and an aging Harriman.
