Laurence Owen
Encyclopedia
Laurence Rochon "Laurie" Owen (icon; May 9, 1944 – February 15, 1961) was a Hall of Fame American
figure skater. She was the 1961 U.S. National Champion
and represented the United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics
, where she placed 6th. She was the daughter of Maribel Vinson and Guy Owen
and the sister of Maribel Owen
. Laurence Owen died in the crash of Sabena Flight 548
en route to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships.
. She was the second child of Guy Owen
and Maribel Vinson and the younger sister of Maribel Owen
. In 1952, shortly after the death of her father, her mother moved back to her girlhood home at 195 High Street in Winchester, Massachusetts
with Laurie and her sister Maribel. Laurie went to Winchester Junior High School and then attended Winchester High School
where she was an honor student and participated in several sports.
In 1956, Laurie won the Eastern Junior Ladies title and was unable to participate in the United States Championships that year because of a broken wrist. In 1958, she placed 3rd in the United States Figure Skating Championship Junior Ladies Division. In 1959, Laurie won the United States Figure Skating Championship Junior Ladies Division.
In January 1960, Laurie placed 3rd in the 1960 United States Figure Skating Championships
and qualified for the 1960 Winter Olympics
where she placed 6th. Her mother, the 1932 Winter Olympics
Bronze Medalist and nine times US Singles Champion Maribel Vinson-Owen
was her coach.
On January 29, 1961, Laurie won the 1961 United States Figure Skating Championships
in Colorado Springs and won the 1961 North American Figure Skating Championships
on February 12, 1961 in Philadelphia. After her victory at the US Nationals, she became a media sensation and was nicknamed "The Winchester Pixie". On February 13, 1961 she appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated
magazine with a feature story that called her "America's most exciting girl skater."
On January 28, 2011 Laurence Owen was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame
along with the entire 1961 World Team. Her sister Maribel Owen also was inducted and her mother Maribel Vinson Owen was inducted for a third time in 2011; in her capacity as a 1961 World Team Coach. Previously, her mother had been inducted in the inaugural Class of 1976 as a singles skater and for a second time in 1994 as a pairs skater.
On February 17, 2011 the U.S. Figure Skating Association released the documentary film entitled "Rise 1961". The movie chronicled the relationship between Laurence and her mother, the airliner crash in Belgium and the rebirth of the United States Figure Skating Team after the crash.
, to be held in Prague
, Czechoslovakia
. The championships were scheduled to begin on February 22, 1961. Laurence, her mother Maribel Vinson-Owen, her sister Maribel, and the other members of the 1961 United States Figure Skating Team and their coaches boarded Sabena Flight 548
just before 7:30 pm EST on Valentine's Day 1961 at Idlewild Airport in New York. On February 15, 1961, about 10:00 am Brussels Time, the Boeing 707
approached Zaventem Airport. The airplane attempted to land, as it was about to touch down on the runway; engine power increased, it performed a go-around
and climbed to 1,500 feet. The airplane attempted to circle and land on another runway, but never made it back to the airport. It crashed in a marshy area adjacent to a farm field less than two miles from the airport (50° 56′ 1.22″ N, 4° 32′ 9.68″ E) at 10:04 a.m. Brussels Time. All 72 people on board, as well as a farmer on the ground, were killed. Laurence Owen was just 16 years old.
The World Championships that year were canceled out of respect for the United States team.
A memorial service was held on February 25, and Laurence was interred beside her mother and sister in Mount Auburn Cemetery
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
that day.
, a Canadian Hall of Fame skater and coach who watched Laurence Owen win her title, wrote:
Laurence 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:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
figure skater. She was the 1961 U.S. National Champion
United States Figure Skating Championships
The United States Figure Skating Championships is figure skating competition held annually to crown the national champions of the United States. The competition is sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating. In the U.S. skating community, the event is often referred to informally as "Nationals".Skaters...
and represented the United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics
United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics
The United States was the host nation for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California.- Medalists :- Alpine skiing:MenWomen- Biathlon:Men1Two minutes added per missed target.- Cross-country skiing :...
, where she placed 6th. She was the daughter of Maribel Vinson and Guy Owen
Guy Owen
Guy Owen was a Canadian figure skating champion.Guy Rochon Owen initially competed in the men's individual figure skating event, winning the1929 Canadian junior men's singles championship. He went on to specialize in the "Fours Event" with great success...
and the sister of Maribel Owen
Maribel Owen
Maribel Yerxa Owen was an American pair skater. With partner Dudley Richards, she was the 1961 U.S. national champion and represented the United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where they placed 10th. She was the daughter of Maribel Vinson and Guy Owen and the sister of Laurence Owen...
. Laurence Owen died in the crash of Sabena Flight 548
Sabena Flight 548
Sabena Flight 548, registration OO-SJB, was a Boeing 707 aircraft that crashed en route to Brussels, Belgium, from New York City on February 15, 1961, killing the entire United States Figure Skating team on its way to the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.The flight, which...
en route to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships.
Life and career
Laurence Owen was born in Oakland and for the first eight years grew up in Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. She was the second child of Guy Owen
Guy Owen
Guy Owen was a Canadian figure skating champion.Guy Rochon Owen initially competed in the men's individual figure skating event, winning the1929 Canadian junior men's singles championship. He went on to specialize in the "Fours Event" with great success...
and Maribel Vinson and the younger sister of Maribel Owen
Maribel Owen
Maribel Yerxa Owen was an American pair skater. With partner Dudley Richards, she was the 1961 U.S. national champion and represented the United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where they placed 10th. She was the daughter of Maribel Vinson and Guy Owen and the sister of Laurence Owen...
. In 1952, shortly after the death of her father, her mother moved back to her girlhood home at 195 High Street in Winchester, Massachusetts
Winchester, Massachusetts
Winchester is a town located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, eight miles north of Boston. With its agricultural roots having mostly disappeared, it is now an affluent suburb...
with Laurie and her sister Maribel. Laurie went to Winchester Junior High School and then attended Winchester High School
Winchester High School
Winchester High School is a comprehensive 9-12 high school located in Winchester, Massachusetts.-Notable alumni:*Nick Martini, professional freeskier- Films with Poor BOyz Productions and co-founder of Stept Productions....
where she was an honor student and participated in several sports.
In 1956, Laurie won the Eastern Junior Ladies title and was unable to participate in the United States Championships that year because of a broken wrist. In 1958, she placed 3rd in the United States Figure Skating Championship Junior Ladies Division. In 1959, Laurie won the United States Figure Skating Championship Junior Ladies Division.
In January 1960, Laurie placed 3rd in the 1960 United States Figure Skating Championships
1960 United States Figure Skating Championships
The 1960 United States Figure Skating Championships were held at the Civic Ice Arena in Seattle, Washington from January 27 through 30, 1960. In the ladies', men's, and pairs' divisions, the competitions were won by the defending champions Carol Heiss, David Jenkins, and Nancy Ludington/Ron...
and qualified for the 1960 Winter Olympics
1960 Winter Olympics
The 1960 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event held between February 18 and 28, 1960 in Squaw Valley, California, United States. In 1955 at the 50th IOC meeting, the organizing committee made the surprise choice to award Squaw Valley as...
where she placed 6th. Her mother, the 1932 Winter Olympics
1932 Winter Olympics
The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4 and closed on February 15. It would be the first winter olympics held in the United...
Bronze Medalist and nine times US Singles Champion Maribel Vinson-Owen
Maribel Vinson-Owen
Maribel Yerxa Vinson-Owen was an American figure skater and coach. She competed in the disciplines of ladies singles and pair skating. As a single skater, she was a nine-time U.S. national champion and the 1932 Olympic bronze medalist. As a pair skater, she won six national titles, two with...
was her coach.
On January 29, 1961, Laurie won the 1961 United States Figure Skating Championships
1961 United States Figure Skating Championships
The 1961 United States Figure Skating Championships were held at the World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from January 25 to January 29, 1961. The competition was dedicated to the memory of Howard D...
in Colorado Springs and won the 1961 North American Figure Skating Championships
North American Figure Skating Championships
The North American Figure Skating Championships were a former elite figure skating competition for skaters from the United States and Canada. It was a biennial competition held between 1923 and 1971, with locations alternating between the two countries.Although the event was classified as an...
on February 12, 1961 in Philadelphia. After her victory at the US Nationals, she became a media sensation and was nicknamed "The Winchester Pixie". On February 13, 1961 she appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
magazine with a feature story that called her "America's most exciting girl skater."
On January 28, 2011 Laurence Owen was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame
United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame
The United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame serves as a repository for the sport of figure skating. The United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame is where the greatest names in the history of the sport are honored. To be inducted into the Hall of Fame is considered the highest achievement an...
along with the entire 1961 World Team. Her sister Maribel Owen also was inducted and her mother Maribel Vinson Owen was inducted for a third time in 2011; in her capacity as a 1961 World Team Coach. Previously, her mother had been inducted in the inaugural Class of 1976 as a singles skater and for a second time in 1994 as a pairs skater.
On February 17, 2011 the U.S. Figure Skating Association released the documentary film entitled "Rise 1961". The movie chronicled the relationship between Laurence 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 Owen was selected as a member of the U.S. team for the 1961 World Figure Skating ChampionshipsWorld Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
, to be held in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. The championships were scheduled to begin on February 22, 1961. Laurence, her mother Maribel Vinson-Owen, her sister Maribel, and the other members of the 1961 United States Figure Skating Team and their coaches boarded Sabena Flight 548
Sabena Flight 548
Sabena Flight 548, registration OO-SJB, was a Boeing 707 aircraft that crashed en route to Brussels, Belgium, from New York City on February 15, 1961, killing the entire United States Figure Skating team on its way to the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.The flight, which...
just before 7:30 pm EST on Valentine's Day 1961 at Idlewild Airport in New York. On February 15, 1961, about 10:00 am Brussels Time, the Boeing 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
approached Zaventem Airport. The airplane attempted to land, as it was about to touch down on the runway; engine power increased, it performed a go-around
Go-around
A go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft that is on final approach.- Origin of the term :The term arises from the traditional use of traffic patterns at airfields. A landing aircraft will first join the circuit pattern and prepare for landing in an orderly fashion...
and climbed to 1,500 feet. The airplane attempted to circle and land on another runway, but never made it back to the airport. It crashed in a marshy area adjacent to a farm field less than two miles from the airport (50° 56′ 1.22″ N, 4° 32′ 9.68″ E) at 10:04 a.m. Brussels Time. All 72 people on board, as well as a farmer on the ground, were killed. Laurence Owen was just 16 years old.
The World Championships that year were canceled out of respect for the United States team.
A memorial service was held on February 25, and Laurence was interred beside her mother and sister in Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery", or the first "rural cemetery", with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
that day.
Epilogue
In her book on figure skating, Debbi WilkesDebbi Wilkes
Debbi Wilkes is a Canadian former pair skater. Competing with Guy Revell, she captured two Canadian titles, the 1963 North American Championship, and won the bronze medal at the 1964 Winter Olympics....
, a Canadian Hall of Fame skater and coach who watched Laurence 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."
Laurence Owen had planned to attend her mother's alma mater, Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
, with a view to eventually becoming a writer. Following her death, at her high school in Winchester, Massachusetts
Winchester, Massachusetts
Winchester is a town located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, eight miles north of Boston. With its agricultural roots having mostly disappeared, it is now an affluent suburb...
, 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
| Event | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympics Figure skating at the 1960 Winter Olympics The figure skating 1960 Winter Olympics results in Squaw Valley, California, United States.-Men's Singles:-Ladies Singles:-Pairs:-Medal table:-Men:Referee:* Rudolf MarxAssistant Referee:* Harold G. Storke... |
6th | ||
| World Championships World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion... |
9th | ||
| North American Championships North American Figure Skating Championships The North American Figure Skating Championships were a former elite figure skating competition for skaters from the United States and Canada. It was a biennial competition held between 1923 and 1971, with locations alternating between the two countries.Although the event was classified as an... |
1st | ||
| U.S. Championships United States Figure Skating Championships The United States Figure Skating Championships is figure skating competition held annually to crown the national champions of the United States. The competition is sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating. In the U.S. skating community, the event is often referred to informally as "Nationals".Skaters... |
1st J. | 3rd | 1st |
See also
- Maribel Vinson
- Maribel OwenMaribel OwenMaribel Yerxa Owen was an American pair skater. With partner Dudley Richards, she was the 1961 U.S. national champion and represented the United States at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where they placed 10th. She was the daughter of Maribel Vinson and Guy Owen and the sister of Laurence Owen...
- Guy OwenGuy OwenGuy Owen was a Canadian figure skating champion.Guy Rochon Owen initially competed in the men's individual figure skating event, winning the1929 Canadian junior men's singles championship. He went on to specialize in the "Fours Event" with great success...
- Sabena Flight 548Sabena Flight 548Sabena Flight 548, registration OO-SJB, was a Boeing 707 aircraft that crashed en route to Brussels, Belgium, from New York City on February 15, 1961, killing the entire United States Figure Skating team on its way to the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.The flight, which...
- Sports Illustrated Jinx