Joan Werner Laurie
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Joan Werner Laurie (1920 - 1964) was the daughter of Thomas Werner Laurie, a London publisher with a reputation for publishing risqué titles. After a war spent in the WRENS and a six-year marriage to Paul Seyler, MC from which issued a son (Nicholas Laurie Seyler, later Nicholas Werner Laurie, now Nick Laurie) she founded and, until her death, edited the woman's periodical She. She lived openly with the journalist and broadcaster Nancy Spain and later the couple provided a home to Windmill Theatre owner and rally driver Sheila van Damm. Among her other achievements she was herself a competent rally driver and navigator.
She was learning to fly when she died, with Nancy Spain and four others, in a light aeroplane crash on her way to the Grand National - the Civil Aviation Authority Accident Reported ended with the words "Passenger interference cannot be ruled out". She was cremated with Spain at Golder's Green Crematorium, London. The relationship between Werner Laurie and Spain is described in Rose Collis' posthumous biography of Nancy Spain, published in 1997.
[edit] References
- Rose Collis: A Trouser Wearing Character: The Life and Times of Nancy Spain: London: Cassell: 1997: ISBN 0304328790
