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Laurence Owen
Laurence Rochon "Laurie" Owen (/lɔːrˈɔːns/; May 9, 1944 – February 15, 1961) was an American figure skater. She was the 1961 U.S. National Champion and represented the United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where she placed sixth. She was the daughter of Maribel Vinson and Guy Owen and the sister of Maribel Owen. Owen died, along with her mother, sister and the entire United States Figure Skating team, in the crash of Sabena Flight 548 en route to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships. In 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the crash, Owen and the entire team was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
Owen was born in Oakland, California, and for the first eight years grew up in Berkeley. She was the second child of Guy Owen and Maribel Vinson, both talented figure skaters, and the younger sister of pairs skater Maribel Owen. She was named in honor of her Canadian paternal grandmother. Her parents taught skating and toured as professional figure skaters. When Laurence was a baby, she and her sister stayed with their maternal grandparents in Winchester, Massachusetts while their parents were on tour. She wrote for a school assignment that she was first introduced to ice skating while she stayed in Winchester, Massachusetts. Like her older sister, she started skating when she was a toddler, using figure skates with double blades to provide added support for a young skater.
Her parents had a troubled marriage and finally divorced in 1949, when Laurence was five, and her father moved to Washington. He then returned to Ottawa, where he died of a perforated ulcer in April 1952. His wife and daughters were not mentioned in his obituary, and it is unknown whether they attended his funeral Mass. Laurence and her sister Maribel lived with their mother in Berkeley.
At age five or six, Laurence resisted her mother's discipline. In a school paper, she described a dinnertime battle. Laurence hated eggs, which she thought were "slimy", and refused to eat them. Her mother made her sit at the breakfast table for up to two hours until she ate the cold egg. Once she hid her fried egg under a rug, which was found by the family's maid three days later. Then she threw the eggs out the window, where they were found by the family's Japanese gardener. Maribel Vinson then made Laurence eat two eggs instead of one egg every day for the following week. Laurence was also resistant to practicing her school figures ahead of a competition. She failed to qualify for a competition. When she was eight, her mother told Laurence she could not go to a summer camp and Laurence decided to work harder at her skating.
After the death of her father, Thomas Vinson, Maribel Vinson moved her family back to her girlhood home at 195 High Street in Winchester, where they lived with Maribel's mother, Gertrude Vinson. Laurence, who at school was known by her full name, attended Winchester Junior High School and then Winchester High School where in addition to maintaining her grueling training schedule she was an honor student, wrote poetry, and participated in several sports. She also had interest in writing, acting, and travel. Laurence was friendly, intelligent, and known for her beaming smile. In her mid-teens, she often wore pants at a time when other girls wore dresses and wore her hair in a short pixie cut. She was also a talented pianist who composed her own songs. She arranged the score of "La Damnation de Faust" by Hector Berlioz for her skating routine at the 1961 U.S. National Competition. Her mother, sister, and her sister’s skating partner Dudley Richards told a reporter that Laurence sometimes liked to daydream and was less organized and focused on timeliness than her highly disciplined mother.
Her skating ambitions kept her busy and her Latin teacher worried that she didn't socialize enough with her classmates. Her mother, Maribel Vinson, informed the Latin teacher that ice skating improved concentration. Laurence recalled attending a school dance with a boy who was shorter than she was and danced too close. She went on one double date to the Totem Pole ballroom at Norumbega Park in Auburndale, Massachusetts in 1959 with a high school classmate who belonged to the school bridge club. Her date recalled that she appeared to be trying to leave the house before her mother and grandmother could meet him, and that she kissed him goodnight. She also enjoyed interactions with boys she met at international skating competitions. A Chilean alpine skier, Francisco "Pancho" Cortes, whom she found "darling", offered to trade his heavy blue sweater for hers during the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, but Laurence turned down the offer because she thought her own sweater was inferior in quality and it would have been unfair to Cortes. Paul George, then a 19-year-old junior pairs skater and Harvard student, taught Laurence how to drive and, at the direction of her mother, took Laurence to dances at the Longwood Cricket Club to give her experience with Boston society.
Laurence held her own in a household of outspoken women. Her maternal grandmother, Gertrude Vinson, who had cared for the girls for an extended period when they were small children, favored her younger granddaughter Laurence, whom she called her “lovey.” Gertrude Vinson picked up after her, washed and mended her clothing, and did chores Laurence had forgotten to do. This annoyed Laurence's older sister, Maribel. Gertrude Vinson often picked Laurence up after school and drove her to the skating rink for her afternoon skating practice.
Laurence was also close to her mother and sister, though she sometimes fought with her mother, who had groomed her to be a champion skater since early childhood and placed tremendous pressure on her daughters to succeed academically as well as on the ice. Maribel Vinson yelled at her daughters, made them cry, and then started crying herself. On one occasion, Maribel yelled at Laurence during a skating lesson and Laurence put her fingers in her ears and pretended not to hear her. Her furious mother chased her around the rink and Laurence hid in the bathroom. In the weeks before the 1961 national competition, Laurence ran upstairs to get away from her mother and the choreographer when they went over her routine. The choreographer followed her and listened to Laurence recite the poetry she had written. For Laurence, creative writing was an escape from the pressure placed upon her by her mother.
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Laurence Owen
Laurence Rochon "Laurie" Owen (/lɔːrˈɔːns/; May 9, 1944 – February 15, 1961) was an American figure skater. She was the 1961 U.S. National Champion and represented the United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where she placed sixth. She was the daughter of Maribel Vinson and Guy Owen and the sister of Maribel Owen. Owen died, along with her mother, sister and the entire United States Figure Skating team, in the crash of Sabena Flight 548 en route to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships. In 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the crash, Owen and the entire team was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
Owen was born in Oakland, California, and for the first eight years grew up in Berkeley. She was the second child of Guy Owen and Maribel Vinson, both talented figure skaters, and the younger sister of pairs skater Maribel Owen. She was named in honor of her Canadian paternal grandmother. Her parents taught skating and toured as professional figure skaters. When Laurence was a baby, she and her sister stayed with their maternal grandparents in Winchester, Massachusetts while their parents were on tour. She wrote for a school assignment that she was first introduced to ice skating while she stayed in Winchester, Massachusetts. Like her older sister, she started skating when she was a toddler, using figure skates with double blades to provide added support for a young skater.
Her parents had a troubled marriage and finally divorced in 1949, when Laurence was five, and her father moved to Washington. He then returned to Ottawa, where he died of a perforated ulcer in April 1952. His wife and daughters were not mentioned in his obituary, and it is unknown whether they attended his funeral Mass. Laurence and her sister Maribel lived with their mother in Berkeley.
At age five or six, Laurence resisted her mother's discipline. In a school paper, she described a dinnertime battle. Laurence hated eggs, which she thought were "slimy", and refused to eat them. Her mother made her sit at the breakfast table for up to two hours until she ate the cold egg. Once she hid her fried egg under a rug, which was found by the family's maid three days later. Then she threw the eggs out the window, where they were found by the family's Japanese gardener. Maribel Vinson then made Laurence eat two eggs instead of one egg every day for the following week. Laurence was also resistant to practicing her school figures ahead of a competition. She failed to qualify for a competition. When she was eight, her mother told Laurence she could not go to a summer camp and Laurence decided to work harder at her skating.
After the death of her father, Thomas Vinson, Maribel Vinson moved her family back to her girlhood home at 195 High Street in Winchester, where they lived with Maribel's mother, Gertrude Vinson. Laurence, who at school was known by her full name, attended Winchester Junior High School and then Winchester High School where in addition to maintaining her grueling training schedule she was an honor student, wrote poetry, and participated in several sports. She also had interest in writing, acting, and travel. Laurence was friendly, intelligent, and known for her beaming smile. In her mid-teens, she often wore pants at a time when other girls wore dresses and wore her hair in a short pixie cut. She was also a talented pianist who composed her own songs. She arranged the score of "La Damnation de Faust" by Hector Berlioz for her skating routine at the 1961 U.S. National Competition. Her mother, sister, and her sister’s skating partner Dudley Richards told a reporter that Laurence sometimes liked to daydream and was less organized and focused on timeliness than her highly disciplined mother.
Her skating ambitions kept her busy and her Latin teacher worried that she didn't socialize enough with her classmates. Her mother, Maribel Vinson, informed the Latin teacher that ice skating improved concentration. Laurence recalled attending a school dance with a boy who was shorter than she was and danced too close. She went on one double date to the Totem Pole ballroom at Norumbega Park in Auburndale, Massachusetts in 1959 with a high school classmate who belonged to the school bridge club. Her date recalled that she appeared to be trying to leave the house before her mother and grandmother could meet him, and that she kissed him goodnight. She also enjoyed interactions with boys she met at international skating competitions. A Chilean alpine skier, Francisco "Pancho" Cortes, whom she found "darling", offered to trade his heavy blue sweater for hers during the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, but Laurence turned down the offer because she thought her own sweater was inferior in quality and it would have been unfair to Cortes. Paul George, then a 19-year-old junior pairs skater and Harvard student, taught Laurence how to drive and, at the direction of her mother, took Laurence to dances at the Longwood Cricket Club to give her experience with Boston society.
Laurence held her own in a household of outspoken women. Her maternal grandmother, Gertrude Vinson, who had cared for the girls for an extended period when they were small children, favored her younger granddaughter Laurence, whom she called her “lovey.” Gertrude Vinson picked up after her, washed and mended her clothing, and did chores Laurence had forgotten to do. This annoyed Laurence's older sister, Maribel. Gertrude Vinson often picked Laurence up after school and drove her to the skating rink for her afternoon skating practice.
Laurence was also close to her mother and sister, though she sometimes fought with her mother, who had groomed her to be a champion skater since early childhood and placed tremendous pressure on her daughters to succeed academically as well as on the ice. Maribel Vinson yelled at her daughters, made them cry, and then started crying herself. On one occasion, Maribel yelled at Laurence during a skating lesson and Laurence put her fingers in her ears and pretended not to hear her. Her furious mother chased her around the rink and Laurence hid in the bathroom. In the weeks before the 1961 national competition, Laurence ran upstairs to get away from her mother and the choreographer when they went over her routine. The choreographer followed her and listened to Laurence recite the poetry she had written. For Laurence, creative writing was an escape from the pressure placed upon her by her mother.