The Poetry of Laurence Owen, Daughter of Maribel Vinson Owen

[Sam_Boni]

As many have responded to my previous posts (ca. 2019) about the life of famous United States figure skating champion and instructor Maribel Vinson Owen (1911-1961), I'll shortly return to the task and post some heretofore unpublished poems of her champion daughter Laurence (1944-1961), who composed the poems while a student at Winchester High School in Winchester MA in the late 1950s. Laurence became such a sensation at the age of 16, she graced the cover of Sports Illustrated on February 13, 1961. Two days later, she, her mother and fifteen other members of the US World Team, including friends and coaches, perished in the crash of Sabena Flight 548, near Brussels, Belgium--a greater tragedy involving the amazing depth and breadth of figure skating talent that died with them.

Sixteen year old Laurence Owen placed 3rd in the 1960 US Figure Skating Championships, and placed 6th in the 1960 Winter Olympics. Mother Maribel was her coach. In January 1961, she won the 1961 US Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs and on February 12, 1961 won the North American Figure Skating Championships. Because of her lyrical, joyous and refreshing performances, she was dubbed "The Winchester Pixie" by the adoring national press. [Wickipedia]

Laurence's sensitivity, that extended to her skating, while under great pressure from her demanding mother-coach Maribel, is reflected in her youthful poetry. Emily Dickinson was one of her favorite poets.

BTW, Maribel Vinson Owen coached legendary Frank Carroll, who retired in 2018, and in turn coached champions Linda Fratianne, Tim Goebel, Evan Lysacek, Michelle Kwan and Gracie Gold. Carroll never ceased to praise the coaching skills he inherited from MVO.

The US Figure Skating Association established a Memorial Fund, in honor of the 1961 World Team, that has financially assisted young figure skaters since its inauguration in 1961.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Yep, thanks. A very prescient and thought-provoking poem by Laurence was shared in the documentary, Rise, which I saw again recently on YouTube. I've always been fascinated by Maribel Vinson Owen, her daughters, and their lives. Talent, exuberance, pioneering achievements, and so much promise, interrupted by fate.

The legacy and the wonder remain ...

 

[skatedreamer]

Thanks for starting this thread! I found this article yesterday when searching for Laurence's poetry. It has an excerpt from one of her poems, although it looks like the RISE film contains much more.

A Tragic February Day in 1961

February 15, 1961—Berg-Kampenhout, Belgium When death rears its hideous head and takes the young, there is such an outrage against the immortal foe. The potential of young lives untapped and forev…

lochgarry.wordpress.com

Also, here she is at the 1961 US Nats. There's a wonderful lightness about her performance; it feels almost as if she's skating not on the ice, but floating a tiny bit above it.

Laurence Owen - 1961 US National Championships Freeskate

This is Laurence Owen's gold-medal-winning freeskate from the 1961 US National figure skating championships. A month later, the plane carrying the US team to...

www.youtube.com

In the interview at the end of the clip, she talks about how excited she was to be going to Worlds that year. Such a sweet, lovely soul; such a terrible loss.

 

[Sam_Boni]

Thank you all for your responses to the Laurence Owen post.

We'll examine some of LO's poems, held at the Vinson-Owen School Archives in Winchester MA, where LO lived and attended high school, with commentary from her high school English teacher Ruth White, who passed a few years ago.

Ruth White attempted to read LO's well-known poem "Awakening" at a Winchester High School assembly following the Sabena Flight 548 crash in Brussels, February 15, 1961, but was unable to finish her reading. WHS could not comprehend the magnitude of the tragedy.

 

[Sam_Boni]

Here are two of Laurence Owen's poems, "These I Love," and "Possession," composed while a student at Winchester High School in Winchester MA, ca. 1958-1959. They were discovered a few years ago at the Vinson-Owen School in Winchester MA, and are heretofore unpublished.

For authenticity, I have attached her original longhand version (incomplete with her edits) of "These I Love.," courtesy the Vinson-Owen School Archives, Winchester MA.

THESE I LOVE

The bare brown earth, just freshly turned/ The smell of new mown hay,
A rippling windswept meadow green / Fresh as the new-born day.

The night wind’s tune, so sad – alone/ The swish of silk on lace,
The healing caress of the breeze/ Against my tired face.

The softness of a kitten’s fur, / The fragrance of perfume/
The feel of raindrops pelting down/Through shrouds of misty gloom.

The crispness of an Autumn morn/ When grass is touched by dew - /
The feeling of content at night / When all my work is through

The thrill of gliding o’er the ice, / The hopes of each new day - /
The flaming brilliance of the sun, / The subtlety of grey.

POSSESSION

My heart is glad / My conscience clear/ I rest fulfilled

For you, the object of my seeking / Are near.
So tender, full of warmth / You lie beside me.

You are my airy sprite / Mocking at life’s toll; /
You are my tempered will

Flashing with a glint of steel - / You are indeed / My very soul.
So tender, full of warmth / You lie beside me.

My next post will include comments on Laurence Owen's poems and what influenced
her poetry, from Ruth E. White, her English teacher at Winchester High School.

And some more of Laurence's poems.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Thank you for sharing @Sam_Boni! I'm sure I heard about Laurence's poetry, probably when I saw the Rise documentary during its debut. I never checked into it further, but the more I learn about Laurence's creativity, the more intrigued I am.

I experience a melancholy tinge of sadness and grief though too when confronted with the stark finality of these tragic deaths that happened suddenly. It becomes a bit overwhelming and difficult to contemplate the enormity. I haven't yet been able to finish reading the book that was written in tribute to the 1961 U.S. figure skating team.

Focusing on a particular aspect in the lives of each of these very real people (such as Laurence's poetry), is probably a more manageable and rewarding way to handle the unyielding sadness.

Thanks again.

 

[Sam_Boni]

Thank you for sharing @Sam_Boni! I'm sure I heard about Laurence's poetry, probably when I saw the Rise documentary during its debut. I never checked into it further, but the more I learn about Laurence's creativity, the more intrigued I am.

I experience a melancholy tinge of sadness and grief though too when confronted with the stark finality of these tragic deaths that happened suddenly. It becomes a bit overwhelming and difficult to contemplate the enormity. I haven't yet been able to finish reading the book that was written in tribute to the 1961 U.S. figure skating team.

Focusing on a particular aspect in the lives of each of these very real people (such as Laurence's poetry), is probably a more manageable and rewarding way to handle the unyielding sadness.

Thanks again.

I hear you.

The enormity and impact of that horrific event in 1961 still ripples through our thoughts, given the loss of such incredible artistic and athletic potential possessed by those who perished. The USFSA Memorial Fund is certainly a fitting tribute to who they were and what they accomplished.

And 73 souls were lost in that crash, in total.

More to come!

 

[skatedreamer]

For those who haven't seen RISE (I hadn't until last week), here's a link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQOjYwyYiJA

The film is so worth watching. It tells the story of the 1961 crash very clearly and contains amazing footage and photos of Maribel Vinson-Owen, Laurence, and Maribel "Jr." as well as other skaters on the flight. There are interviews with the skaters' contemporaries (e.g. Frank Carroll, Ron Luddington) and great commentary from Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, Michelle Kwan, Dorothy Hamill, and Peggy Fleming.

I especially loved the story of Maribel Vinson Owen in the film; I knew she was a revered coach and 9-time US ladies' champion but there was so much more to her than that. She was a single mom who raised her daughters to be strong and independent at a time when feminism was barely thought of, much less promoted. She coached a black skater and stood up for Jewish skaters before anyone cared about equal rights. Not just a star skater, but an altogether remarkable woman.

Again, thanks to @Sam_Boni for starting this thread about a wonderful -- although heartbreaking -- piece of US skating history!

 

[Sam_Boni]

"RISE" did include a reference to her prescient poem "The Awakening" - a different poem from her other famed "The Awakening" poem -
wherein she made poignant allusions to finality.

I'll include the full text of that poem as an attachment, along with three other short poems next.

 

[Sam_Boni]

Here are three more of Laurence Owen's poems, composed between 1958-1960.

I have also Attached her "The Awakening" poem, mentioned in the film "RISE."

Thoughts on Laurence's poetry by her high school English Teacher, Ruth White, next.


ON LOVE

True love is pure and free / For it is God’s light.

It is cast / Among the shadows of human sin /

Which do their best to smother it -

But it remains constant, unwavering, / Eternally bright


DESPAIR

Ah, despair, what are you? / A sinking of the heart, of hope?

You are many things – but mainly / Loss of clarity, of perception


THE SEA

It is night, and the sea is quiet, / Cool and green – its surf a

Gentle wash against the shore / How gentle it seems!

With what perfection does it hide / Its violence

And yet - / how easily can this sliding

Force become a crash of waves / And pounding surf.

Moved from its wrathful depths / it strikes the shore in anger,

And earth succumbs to Neptune

[To be continued - L.O.]

 

[Parsifal3363]

When we see an athlete in motion, with such grace or strength, we often look for more, for other qualities of mind or soul.

Usually, we look in vain. What makes this person special is what we perceive and perhaps an underlying will which sustains it, but little more.

Laurence Owen was that rare exception, whose figure skating was but one facet of a person whose grace was not merely physical, but found expression in what she thought or did, and especially, in what she wrote.

She was like a prism, revealing the light in all its many hues, and whose words were lyrics to the song that was her life.

It is such a pity that she left us just when we had begun to know her, but a blessing that she provided us with such souvenirs as you are sharing with us.

 

[Sam_Boni]

And soon, I'll be posting commentary from Laurence's contemporaries, about the musicality of her skating.

 

[skylark]

And soon, in another Thread, I'll be posting commentary from Laurence's contemporaries, about the musicality of her skating.

what thread, please?

 

[Sam_Boni]

what thread, please?

Hi - That new Thread won't be started until May.

Meanwhile, I'll shortly post here about Laurence's high school English teacher's reactions to LO's poetry.

 

[Sam_Boni]

Here is commentary on Laurence's poetry from her English teacher at Winchester High School, the late Ruth White:

Laurence simply submitted her poems to me without assignments--but there was little opportunity for a one-on-one,,,I’d try to see her some time after the end of the [last period of the day]…

She found her own desire and subject matter; she found the poets that she liked—Emily Dickinson was one of the first; e.e. cummings for a little bit. She also liked the English Romantic poets. The Romantic Poets were assigned Senior Year English Lit.

Many of her poems were composed in her Junior Year. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was going to be a love of her life; she could taste and accept or reject as she willed. It was interesting to see how quickly she turned to Nature and to God and religion to indicate how much she was thinking and along what lines—that impressed me a great deal. She followed that through on practically everything she wrote—it was always a reference to soul, to God, to evil, to good.

Her sensitivity to Nature was one of the things I loved the most, I think, and the vivid language that she used in the figures of speech, the metaphors she used [were] unusually fine—sometimes better than others. She tried to imitate Emily Dickinson's very short poems—not as successfully as Dickinson—but she tried. I love Dickinson myself.

The one thing that I noticed [after recently reviewing them]...that I hadn’t before, something in a way that surprised me – first this little short one, “On Love:” “True Love is pure and free / For it is God’s light...” A belief that seems to come forth very clearly – then the next poem she wrote, “On Despair” – “Ah, despair, what are you? A sinking of the heart, of hope / You are many things / but mainly lack of clarity….”

There seems to be a disparity between first, her belief in humanity, and then a sort of rejection, from insecurity, about the behavior of humanity. And so there's, an effort, I think, to get at the point she’s trying to make on all of these, and then the one, “On Parting”...Now she’s seeing the darkness but she’s saying she has hope, you see, that everything’s going to turn out all right. That’s something about her poetry that I felt was very strong; I liked it a lot.

Her love of Nature, and then the language evolving with that, I thought, was very unusual and very important for a young girl, because it seemed to go so far beyond her level; but she liked it and loved it and worked hard at it. And I thought it was better to let her run free, on the selection of topics. Shakespeare was one of her favorites, too.

[Interviewed July 30, 2001]

Following, Ruth White recounts her and Winchester's reactions to the Crash....

 

[Sam_Boni]

English teacher Ruth White reflects on the Crash of Sabena Flight 548 in Brussels, February 15, 1961:

I first heard about the crash on the radio, when I was getting up and getting ready to go to school. I got to the school as fast as I could. I went in—I didn’t see a soul around anywhere. I was in the Faculty Room and one of the teachers, a biology teacher, was sitting at one of the tables, and had his head down on his folded arms and he was crying like a baby. And so, we sat together and talked awhile about it.

And things began to move and more people began to come in...The students, of course, were just going everywhere—they wouldn’t settle down—couldn’t. And they were upset and of course the teachers were terribly upset.

I took out Laurence’s poem, when it was time for her class to meet—a morning class. I started reading “Awakening,” but I didn’t get very far.
The kids, they were quiet—they didn’t know how to deal with it.

There were many of the kids who didn’t know her very well because all they knew of her really was that she was a skater, and a very good one, and that she often had to leave school to go to compete. So, it was difficult for them to try to face up to what actually happened, and to understand the tragedy of it.

Then, the students at lunchtime...all took to the streets, they went downtown, near the [town] center...those same birds [news reporters] that were breaking into my house later on in the afternoon, were talking to them, getting the kids to say all kinds of things, and I was never able to find out. All the students would tell me, Well, they wanted to know this or they wanted to know that...but they were so upset during the day that they found it very difficult to be able to tell very clearly what was going on in their lives, and as it related to the activity of the townspeople….

 

[Sam_Boni]

Ruth White endures a harrowing encounter with news reporters, while reeling from the Crash's enormity...

[At the end of the school day] I was tired and very upset, of course, and I thought, Well, I guess I’ll see if I can take a shower, wash my hair and just try to go to bed.

I was ready to go to bed, when the doorbell rang.

I went to answer the door because I thought my roommate had forgotten his key. And they [news reporters] were standing there...and here I was in my bathrobe, my hair was wet and hanging down. They didn’t say a word – they just came in, they just pushed me right out of the way. There were three of them, going in different directions – one went to my bookshelves, and going through those; another went into the den...they never said a word.

All I could say was, “Would you please leave? I have been through enough today—I don’t want any more of it—please leave!” They didn’t react to anything I said—until I called Howard [Niblock, Winchester High Principal].

I said, “Howard [you] gotta get these birds outa here!” So, he said, “You tell them if they’re not down here at the High School in ten minutes, I’m calling the cops!” So, then they left—I never saw them again...

And it took a long, long time to get over that experience.

 

[Sam_Boni]

John Malone, author of The Encyclopedia of Figure Skating (1998), took skating lessons at the Skating Club of Boston along with Laurence, and became friends with the Owens. He reflects on LO’s writing:

Laurence was really interested in writing. A couple of times she gave me a poem she’d written—I thought she was very talented. She really liked writing poetry...I think she liked the formality of poetry. She loved the language, but she [also] liked the kind of almost restrictions that poetry imposed. I think, in a way, that’s reflective of her superb control of the school figures. I think she not only liked Emily Dickinson, but also Robert Browning.

[Interviewed 2/02/02]

In a June Thread: Laurence Owen, Her Musicality, Style and Deportment.

But first, this Thread: Maribel Vinson Owen: The Men in Her Life.