Laurence Owen - WikiHQ

right|thumb|Laurence Owen was pictured on cover of the February 13, 1961 issue of [[Sports Illustrated.]]

Laurence Rochon "Laurie" Owen (; 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.

Personal life

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.

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. 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.

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.

In January 1960, Laurence placed third in the 1960 United States Figure Skating Championships and qualified for the 1960 Winter Olympics where she placed sixth. Her mother, a 1932 Winter Olympics Bronze Medalist and nine times US Singles Champion, was her coach.

On January 29, 1961, Laurence won the 1961 United States Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs and on February 12 that same year, won the 1961 North American Figure Skating Championships in Philadelphia. After her victory at the US Nationals, she became a media sensation and was nicknamed "The Winchester Pixie."

On February 17, 2011, the U.S. Figure Skating Association released the documentary film entitled "Rise". The movie chronicled the relationship between Owen and her mother, the airliner crash in Belgium and the rebirth of the United States Figure Skating Team after the crash.

Death

As national champion, Laurence was selected as a member of the U.S. Figure Skating Team to compete in the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships, to be held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The championships were scheduled to begin on February 22, 1961. All 72 people on board, as well as a farmer on the ground, were killed. Laurence Owen was 16 years old.

The World Championships that year were cancelled out of respect for the United States team.

A memorial service for Laurence, her mother and sister was held February 25, 1961 at the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Winchester. and Laurence was interred that day beside her mother and sister in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Gertrude Vinson stayed active in the skating association following the plane crash and encouraged the young skaters. She was known as "Grammy" to the skaters in the club, who helped care for her following the loss of her family. She was interred beside her daughter and granddaughters following her own death in 1969.

Epilogue

In her book on figure skating, Debbi Wilkes, a Canadian Hall of Fame skater and coach who watched Owen win her title, wrote:

:"Laurence was wonderful. She had a fresh, wholesome look, but didn't fit into any mold. She was carefree and joyous on the ice. She had wonderful rosy cheeks, beautiful big eyes and a short shag haircut that feathered over her face and fluttered when she skated. I was totally enchanted by her."

Owen had planned to attend her mother's alma mater, Radcliffe College, with a view to eventually becoming a writer. Following her death, at her high school in Winchester, Massachusetts, Laurie Owen's English teacher read a poem to her classmates that Laurie had recently written. The poem ended with these words:

:Gloom is but a shadow of the night, long past;

:Hope is the light,

:The radiance.

Results

{| class="wikitable"

! Event

! 1958

! 1959

! 1960

! 1961

| Winter Olympics || || || align="center" | 6th ||

| World Championships || || || align="center" | 9th ||

| North American Championships || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st

| U.S. Championships || align=center bgcolor=cc9966 | 3rd J || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st J. || align="center" bgcolor="cc9966" | 3rd || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st

References

Footnotes

External links

U.S. Figure Skating biography
Remembering Flight 548: Shattered dreams
February 13, 1961 Sports Illustrated Cover