Maribel Vinson was the daughter of Thomas and Gertrude Vinson of Winchester, Massachusetts. Both of her parents were figure skaters and Maribel was made an honorary member of the Cambridge Skating Club at birth. A good student, Vinson studied at Radcliffe College while pursuing an interest in ice skating. She married Canadian skater Guy Owen and they had two daughters, Maribel Yerxa Owen and Laurence Rochon Owen. They divorced in 1949, and Guy Owen died three years later at age 38. Following her father's death, also in 1952, she and her daughters moved back east to Winchester and lived with her mother. In February 1961, Maribel Vinson-Owen was killed along with both daughters in the Sabena Flight 548 crash in Belgium.
Competitive career
Vinson began to take lessons with coach Willie Frick at the Boston Arena at the age of nine. She won the U.S. junior ladies' title at the age of 12. From 1928 to 1937, Vinson won the women's singles title at the U.S. Championships every year except for 1934. She also teamed up with Thornton L. Coolidge to win the U.S. pairs' title in 1928 and 1929, and with George E. B. Hill to win four titles in 1933, 1935, 1936, and 1937. At the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, Vinson earned the bronze medal behind the Norwegian champion Sonja Henie and the Austrian runner up, Fritzi Burger. While still competing, in the 1930s, Vinson became the first woman sportswriter at the New York Times newspaper. Following her retirement from amateur ice skating, Vinson toured professionally with her husband Guy Owen in shows.
Coaching career
Following the birth of her two daughters, Vinson-Owen began coaching in Berkeley, California. She divorced Owen in 1949 and after her father's death in 1952, she lived in her native Winchester, Massachusetts, and coached at rinks in the Boston area. Her daughters developed a love for ice skating and she trained them in the sport. Vinson-Owen coached Tenley Albright to five U.S. titles and then to the United States' first Olympic gold medal in ladies' singles. She also taught Frank Carroll, who himself went on to be one of America's top skating instructors, coaching Michelle Kwan to her numerous world and national titles and Evan Lysacek to his Olympic gold medal. During her lifetime, Vinson-Owen authored several books on her sport:
Primer of Figure Skating – McGraw-Hill/Whittlesey House
Advanced Figure Skating – McGraw-Hill/Whittlesey House
At the 1961 U.S. Championships, her daughter and namesake, Maribel, won the national pair skating title with partner Dudley S. Richards, while her youngest daughter, 16-year-old Laurence, won the ladies' single title. It was the first time CBS broadcast the U.S. national championships on television and the Owen family became instant celebrities.
Plane crash
Vinson-Owen, as a coach, and her two daughters, as competitors, were all part of the United States team scheduled to appear at the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. They boarded Sabena Flight 548 at New York City's Idlewild International Airport along with the rest of the American team. The overnight flight had a stopover scheduled for Brussels, Belgium and on its arrival in the clear mid-morning of February 15, the captain had to abort the approach and circle around for a second attempt to land on a different runway. The plane, a Boeing 707, never made it back to the airport; instead, it plunged into the wooded farmland of the village of Berg, Belgium, taking the lives of all 72 passengers and crew plus a farmer at work in his fields. All 18 members of the American figure skating team plus 16 of their relatives, friends, and coaches were among the dead. The 1961 World Championships were canceled. The remains of Vinson-Owen and her daughters were brought home for interment in the Story Chapel Columbarium at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Legacy
Vinson-Owen was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame three times – in 1976 as a singles' skater, in 1994 with George E.B. Hill in the pairs' category, and in 2011 as a coach for the 1961 World Team. In 2001, she was inducted to the inaugural class of the Professional Skaters' Association Coaches Hall of Fame, which included the five coaches that perished beside her. In 2002, she was inducted in the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Her daughters were inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2011. In Winchester, the Vinson-Owen elementary school was named in her and her daughters' honor.
