Remembering Laurence Owen

[janetfan]

Here is the first skater I remember .......

http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/1961/0213_large.jpg

Check the little caption "America's most exciting GIRL skater.
Before Peggy or Janet or Dorothy - she would have been have the first skating "girl" to capture the American public's hearts. More "it" factor than Tenley and Carol combined.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/winchester/homepage/x428361245

 

[tricia90]

Thank you Janetfan for the article on Laurence Owen. I was very young and skating at the Detroit Skating Club in 1961. All we little girls knew who she was and wanted to be just like her. She had a very fresh and different look from the stiff hair,formal makeup and structured costumes of the time. More than one of us took her picture to the hairdresser and said "Copy this!" and little pixies popped up all over town.
She had the same spirit as Janet Lynn a few years later and I always felt that her loss was a loss to the world as well as to figure skating.

 

[janetfan]

Thank you Janetfan for the article on Laurence Owen. I was very young and skating at the Detroit Skating Club in 1961. All we little girls knew who she was and wanted to be just like her. She had a very fresh and different look from the stiff hair,formal makeup and structured costumes of the time. More than one of us took her picture to the hairdresser and said "Copy this!" and little pixies popped up all over town.
She had the same spirit as Janet Lynn a few years later and I always felt that her loss was a loss to the world as well as to figure skating.

Thanks for sharing that memory Tricia. My older sister was 12 back in '61 and she had done some skating. She idolized "Laurie" and had seen her skate Live.
I remember the day she came home with her new pixie haircut. It was cute and she was so happy that she thought about getting back to skating again. A few weeks later the plane went down and my sister was so sad and never did skate again.
I think you are right about Janet. She had many similarities to Laurence from skating style to the natural charisma.

 

[dewey]

Janetfan, who is the skater on the SI cover in your profile, and what is the date? It looks kind of like Peggy, but I can't be sure. Beautiful picture.

 

[janetfan]

Janetfan, who is the skater on the SI cover in your profile, and what is the date? It looks kind of like Peggy, but I can't be sure. Beautiful picture.

It is former US Natl Champion Laurence Owen, daughter of 9 time US Ladies Champion Mirabel Vincent Owen. Here is a link to the picture.
http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/1961/0213_large.jpg

The date on the magazine is Feb 13, 1961, two days before her tragic death in a plane crash with the rest of the US National Team.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

It is former US Natl Champion Laurence Owen, daughter of 9 time US Ladies Champion Mirabel Vincent Owen. For more info you can see message #33 and 34 under "Skaters who creep you out topic." (Laurie never creeped me out )
Here is a link to the picture.
http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/1961/0213_large.jpg

The date on the magazine is Feb 13, 1961, two days before her tragic death in a plane crash with the rest of the US National Team.

A dear girlfriend of mine who was a Reporter on SI back in those Time/Life/Sports Illustrated days had interviewed the skaters in Colorado, just before the plane crash. She didn't know the plane had crashed while traveling back to New York. When she learned of it, she went into deep depression that lasted a long time.

 

[tarotx]

Yikes Laurence Owen was a horrible example of the SI curse That is a beautiful photograph though She was such a lovely looking young woman and a fab skater. I don't think I would have ever recovered over the loss of the whole world team!!

 

[janetfan]

A dear girlfriend of mine who was a Reporter on SI back in those Time/Life/Sports Illustrated days had interviewed the skaters in Colorado, just before the plane crash. She didn't know the plane had crashed while traveling back to New York. When she learned of it, she went into deep depression that lasted a long time.

Here is a link to a Sports Illustrated photographer's memories of Laurence and the US skater's from 1961. (Under 19th Hole)

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1147890/index.htm

 

[dewey]

Thank you both. Frank Carroll would have known and trained with her.

 

[seniorita]

Here is a link to the picture.
http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/1961/0213_large.jpg
The date on the magazine is Feb 13, 1961, two days before her tragic death in a plane crash with the rest of the US National Team.

Thats a sad story, i didnt know about it. It becomes sadder when you watch this picture, this girl was extremely beautiful and her pic with this amazing dress is full of life. sad..

 

[janetfan]

Thank you both. Frank Carroll would have known and trained with her.

Yes, Frank Carroll was a student of Mirabel as was OGM winner Tenley Albright.
Here is a link to an article about the 40th anniversary tribute to the 1961 National team. It had been scheduled months in advance and took place at Madison Square Garden only three weeks after the 9/11 tragedy.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/2001/10/06/skating_tribute_ap/

Yikes Laurence Owen was a horrible example of the SI curse That is a beautiful photograph though She was such a lovely looking young woman and a fab skater. I don't think I would have ever recovered over the loss of the whole world team!!

Here is a link to the infamous Sports Illustrated "Cover Jinx."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/2002/jinx/main/

(Click on any of the covers to see jinx stories by decade)

,

Thats a sad story, i didnt know about it. It becomes sadder when you watch this picture, this girl was extremely beautiful and her pic with this amazing dress is full of life. sad..

Here is a link to a long article, "Shattered Dreams" about the '61 air tragedy with infos about many of the skaters and coaches who were lost.

http://www.boston.com/sports/packages/usfigureskating/stories/122900_shattered_dreams.htm

 

[tricia90]

This has brought back such sad memories for me. Doug Ramsay skated at my club in Detroit. He was 16, an older guy, but he was cute, funny and willing to talk to us so we little girls all had crushes on him. He had won Junior Nationals the previous year and we were thrilled when he placed fourth at the 1961 Seniors. He was the alternate which meant that he would be sent to Prague if someone else could not go. It was unbelievable when Tim Brown had to drop out and Doug took his spot.
Shortly before he left, I was doing figures right next to him and I wished him good luck. He laughed and said he was going to need it. Both he and his coach Bill Swallendar went to Prague with the US team and were on the plane that day. I think he had incredible potential and might have been a World champion eventually.

 

[dorispulaski]

This story always reminds me of the collection for the USFS Memorial Fund during intermissions at US Nationals in honor of the skaters who died in the 1961 crash. Often the president of USFS , F. Ritter Shumway would skate a compulsory, (AFAIR it was generally one of the waltzes) with his partner Harlene Lee while volunteers circulated through the crowd, collecting donations and giving out little Memorial fund pins. Lee & Shumway competed for a long, long time in adult skating ice dance. Shumway kept skating till just before his death in 1992.

Shumway was a rather newly minted USFS president in 1961 when the crash occurred.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Ritter_Shumway

Here's F. Ritter skating an FD with Harlene in 1978

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKYvVSNdmIM

 

[skatesindreams]

Here is the first skater I remember .......

http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/1961/0213_large.jpg

Check the little caption "America's most exciting GIRL skater.
Before Peggy or Janet or Dorothy - she would have been have the first skating "girl" to capture the American public's hearts. More "it" factor than Tenley and Carol combined.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/winchester/homepage/x428361245

Thank you! That is one of the best articles I have ever read.
I'm grateful to anyone who has shared reminiscences in this thread.

 

[janetfan]

This story always reminds me of the collection for the USFS Memorial Fund during intermissions at US Nationals in honor of the skaters who died in the 1961 crash. Often the president of USFS , F. Ritter Shumway would skate a compulsory, (AFAIR it was generally one of the waltzes) with his partner Harlene Lee while volunteers circulated through the crowd, collecting donations and giving out little Memorial fund pins. Lee & Shumway competed for a long, long time in adult skating ice dance. Shumway kept skating till just before his death in 1992.

Shumway was a rather newly minted USFS president in 1961 when the crash occurred.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Ritter_Shumway

Here's F. Ritter skating an FD with Harlene in 1978

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKYvVSNdmIM

Thanks for your thoughts and the article/clip about F. Ritter Shumway. This topic can feel sad - but I think sharing our thoughts is a good way to honor the memory of the '61 skaters, coaches and their families. To forget them would be much sadder.
Thanks to Tricia for sharing such poignant memories of Doug Ramsay.

Here is Laurence, age 16 at the '61 US Nationals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0114...32E1D446&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=13

It is easy to see what an expressive, musical skater she was and I see so much of Janet Lynn when I watch "Laurie's" beautiful flow over the ice.
(Not to be missed is the line up of judges as they post the their scores. Not anonymous - but wonder why they are all wearing the same hat?

 

[janetfan]

I don't think I would have ever recovered over the loss of the whole world team!!

Yes, it is hard to imagine such a thing and it really was devastating to US skating and our entire skating community.
This was in 1961, a year after the Squaw Valley Olympics. There was a changing of the guard as most of our established skaters had retired or turned pro. Heading to Prague were all of our young new champions and national medalists along with many of our best coaches. It was a loss that took close to a decade to overcome and emotionally the scars lasted longer.

Sometimes I think the newer generation of skating fans fails to recognize how important and beloved a champion Peggy Fleming was. Many of us first saw her in 1964 - a young, 15 year old girl, full of promise but still unpolished. Needless to say US Skating was rebuilding in those years and as 1968 approached, for the first time in eight years we had high hopes for our new National Champion to win the Olympic Gold Medal. Peggy did not disappoint us and the fact that she was not from an elite family - she skated in home made dresses sewn by her mother - only served to further endear her in the hearts of the American public.
Peggy went on to also win Wolrds later that season and then retired from competitive skating to turn professional.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9lXUCebybs
(US Nationals - 1964 Peggy Fleming)

Back in 1961 we suffered a terrible loss but like most things the wounds were healed in time. I will always have a special place in my heart for Peggy for helping to bring back US Skating. Janet Lynn was to follow Peggy as our next Ice Queen and although she never won the OGM or WC she was adored by most of the American and International skating community.

 

[snowflake]

This topic can feel sad - but I think sharing our thoughts is a good way to honor the memory of the '61 skaters, coaches and their families. To forget them would be much sadder.

Yes.

I knew about this tragic accident, but nothing about the skaters, their coaches or the relatives that were killed. Thanks everybody for your inforrmation in this thread. I have read/watched all your links. Many thoughts come through my head; sadness, the random of some "lucky" skaters winning a world ticket, the not-so-good-idea traveling together, (but how fun they surely had in the plane) the money problems stopping some from going, the near and dears back in US and so on.....

 

[janetfan]

Here is a News release for the US Figure Skating Memorial Fund for the 2008-09.

http://www.usfigureskating.org/Story.asp?id=43197

 

[Ladskater]

Aha, I knew there had to be a Canadian connection. Nice article. I always like to read articles about skaters who played a part in figure skating history - especially from the "old school of figure skating." It's like everything - even figure skating is not the same as it used to be. I miss the good old days....