It Happened Here In Ohio

       Songs can tell stories but mostly they convey feelings deep inside us.  Loving music like I do, sometimes I run across songs written about true events or real people.  Some songs that have made music history and are some of my favorites include "The wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot,   "Candle In The Wind and England's Rose" Elton John and "Black Velvet" by Alannha Myles .  I think one of the ones that gets kinda lost in the mix, was a song by Christopher Cross "Think Of Laura or Hey Laura"
      Many associate this song with the soap opera characters of "Luke and Laura" but the song wasn't written for them.  The true fact behind the song was that Laura Carter was the roommate and sorority sister of a Denison University College student named Paige, that Christopher met at one of his concerts. Christopher Cross went so far as to name his album "Another Page" and featured her on the inside liner of the album, where she is pictured sitting on a stool.  Christopher invited Paige to visit him on tour. and in the process of dating her, he met her roommate Laura Carter, so the song was quite literally his personal reaction to her tragic death.  Laura was killed during homecoming weekend at the college when she was struck by a stray bullet in the city of Columbus, Ohio, when a bullet fired over a block away during an altercation between four men, struck her while she was riding in the back seat.  At the time she was sitting in the back of the car being driven by her parents, who were visiting her for homecoming and had taken her and two of her lacrosse teammates to dinner following the game she had just played in.  The tragic story of what had happened to this young woman deeply affected everyone on campus at the college.  It of course was devastating to Paige.
     Christopher Cross wrote the song as a way of comforting Paige and honoring the memory of Laura.
The song wasn't a hit until many months after the album "Another Page " was released.  It wasn't until the song was featured in the soap opera "General Hospital" in support of its popular "Luke and Laura" characters.  Fans of the soap opera began requesting the song and it eventually became a top 40 Radio hit .
     I have never been a soap opera fan, so that didn't mean too much to me that the song was used for the story line.  It meant more to me when it came out because of the "Real" Laura it was dedicated to, its a beautiful song because of her and every time I hear it, I think of the real reason it was written and to the memory of a young life gone.   Let it be for her and to all those special people in our lives that passed away so young.
"Think Of Laura"