Patricia Altschul has immortalized her longtime butler and fan-favorite, Michael Kelcourse, in her new memoir. The “Southern Charm” matriarch said that dedicating part of her book, “Eat, Drink, and Remarry: Memories from a Lifetime of Art, Class, and Southern Charm,” to him was an easy decision. “He was a family member,” Altschul said.
Patricia Altschul Honors Her Late Butler, Michael Kelcourse, as ‘Family‘
In Altschul’s new memoir, she details her 18-year friendship with Michael, who died in October 2024 after suffering a rare spinal stroke in 2021.
“He was the consummate professional, but we also felt like he was a member of our family,” she told Us Weekly. “He lived here and was with us practically every day. Even on his days off, he’d come over to make dinner or play with the dogs.”
“He deserved to be memorialized, and I wanted to do that,” Altschul said. “He was with me 18 years. 18 years is a long time.”
Altschul hired Kelcourse in 2004 after the death of his former employer, an “ancient dowager who maintained an enormous estate” in New York. “We met, and I liked everything about him,” she recalled. He quickly became a fixture in her Charleston mansion and later a fan favorite on “Southern Charm.”
“Michael became the resident expert on cocktails and everything domestic,” she wrote. “So many fans wrote to him for advice that we had to add an ‘Ask Michael’ button to my website.”
A Professional Bond Built on Trust and Loyalty
Altschul made it clear her relationship with Kelcourse was purely professional. “Did I ever have a romantic relationship with Michael? No … God, no,” she wrote. “The relationship between an employer and a butler is completely professional and built on trust and mutual respect. Period.”
In her book, she described the morning Kelcourse suffered his stroke. “As he fell to the floor, he pulled the phone down with him and pressed the ‘All page’ button. ‘Call an ambulance,’ he said into the speaker. ‘I’m having a stroke.’” Altschul’s son, “Southern Charm” creator Whitney Sudler-Smith, “raced” to Michael’s room and stayed with him until help arrived.
Kelcourse later moved to a long-term care facility in Florida to be near family. “Wonderful, dedicated, kind, and exceptional—these were the words people used to describe Michael,” Altschul wrote. “He was all that and so much more.”
“Eat, Drink, and Remarry” is available wherever books are sold.
Patricia Altschul returns in new episodes of “Southern Charm,” November 19 on Bravo.
