Grace Laughlin, an old-timer's old-timer whose 57 years in Sun Valley eclipse other old timers with a mere 20 or 30 years, will leave the valley at the end of May, returning to St. Louis, Mo., her once home-town, and join her sister, nieces and nephews.
In 1949, Grace, already smitten with the skating bug, saw Sonja Henie in "Sun Valley Serenade." It was a film that changed her life from mid-westerner to died-in-the wool Idahoan when she signed on for a "Learn to Ski" week in 1949. It was a year when snow was in short supply, and Grace had no problem changing her Learn to Ski week to a Learn to Skate week. From that time on, when she wasn't at work, first as a Lodge waitress and then as hostess, Grace was at the rink. The 1950s were the time of the ski bum, and perhaps Grace was the first who could claim the title of skate bum.
Grace took lessons from Bruce Clark, then head of the skating program, and for a number of years she had a part in the Sun Valley ice show.
"But I never had a solo part," she said, careful not to embellish her résumé.
Grace became a friend of all the featured guest skaters who starred in what became an increasingly professional ice show, beginning with the prominent Canadian pair Gia Guddat and Gary Beacom to recent starts Jamie Salé and David Pelletier. In 1986, she took part in a TV documentary about Gary and Gia, due in large part to her already legendary scrapbook of Sun Valley ice-skating. It began in 1949 and continued right through last week when, instead of ending up in Sun Valley's archives, where it would surely be an asset had they learned of it, it was packed along with other belongings bound for St. Louis.
Grace worked in the Konditorei in Sun Valley in the 1960s at a time when a non-smoker was a rarity—although Grace was. The other waitresses had a special small closet where an always-present ashtray usually had a smoking butt or two. After the noon closing, when the girls gathered at a table for their own lunch and always called out to Grace to "come on over" she'd decline and give her standard reply.
"No thanks, ladies, I don't want a smoke sandwich."
For the last decade or two Grace found her second calling, one that benefited many. After her small and well-furred brown-and-white companion Spice, died at age 15, Grace became the local Patron Saint of Dogs—house-mother, den mother, hiking companion and trusted friend to a long line of cherished valley dogs whose doting owners, bent on travel, passed Grace's name from one to another. Grace was out on the trails every day and never alone. The dog or dogs in her company seemed always to be on their best behavior.
Asked why she was leaving when her life here has been such an obviously happy and successful one, Grace replied, "I've broken too many bones on the ice."
We must have looked surprised.
"Oh, not the ice rink ice," she said. "The ice around town!" The sorry list includes wrist... ankle...clavicle...humerus...knee cap.
"I hate to leave now just when summer skating is about to start," Grace said, "but I don't want to risk another winter."
A number of beings—human and canine—hate to see her leave as well.
Say goodbye to Grace
After 57 memorable years, Grace Laughlin will be leaving Idaho for the bright lights of St. Louis. Please come say goodbye Friday, May 19, from 3-5 p.m. at 30 Lane Ranch Road, West Lane's Ranch. For details, call Janis at 622-8882.
Grace Laughlin poses with friends of a friend, Flower and Tasha.
