American racing driver, team owner, and businesswoman whose racing endeavours focused mainly on Grand Prix and rallying. She was the first American woman to compete in an international Grand Prix race and the first woman to establish her own Grand Prix team.
Before the outbreak of World War I (WWI), Lucy met Selim Laurence “Laury” Schell. Schell, who had been born in Geneva and lived mainly in France, was the son of an American diplomat. In the early days of WWI Lucy O’Reilly worked as a nurse, caring for injured servicemen in a Parisian military hospital. In April 1915 she decamped for the United States, accompanied by her mother, Laury Schell, and Schell’s brother. Two years later she and Laury Schell returned to Paris to marry. When hostilities ended they took up residence in Paris.
The couple had two children. Harry in 1921, and Phillipe in 1926. In the late 1920s O’Reilly Schell began to seriously pursue her interest in motor racing. The eldest of the two children, Harry, would go on to become one of the first Formula One drivers from the United States, competing in the 1950s before dying in a racing crash at Silverstone in 1960.
In 1936 O’Reilly Schell inherited her father’s estate, which she used to fund development of racing cars tailored to her requirements.
On 18 October 1939 Laury died in a car crash in France. O’Reilly Schell was seriously injured in the same accident.
Lucy O’Reilly Schell died on 8 June 1952 at age 55 in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Link to Wikipedia biography