I’m so thankful you’ve found me here at Least Famous.
Let me awkwardly introduce myself. In the past, I’ve been a member of an entertainment family, a wife and mother-of-three, a (fourth) daughter, a grandmother-of-five, and an 8th-grade teacher. Currently, I’m a writer finishing up a memoir; I don’t post parts of the book here, but Least Famous is memoir-adjacent.
I write about ideas I collected during childhood and adolescence, ideas that I banked on and invested in until they utterly failed me.
And I write about my belief that this is every human's destiny, to come to an end, to drown in the maelstrom of our hallowed beliefs and to finally submit to the deconstruction of those ideas. I know - it’s a lot.
I believe stories have intrinsic value in and of themselves. Of course, there are myriad versions of that story that I’ve jettisoned, like the story of being unworthy or invisible. Less than, or better than. I’ve surrendered the parts of the story that don’t serve me, or anyone else, although the ghosts of the past tell me those stories from time to time. I like to think I can curate the version I’d like to live long after I’m gone.
I hope you're interested in stories about beginnings, brokenness, and breakthroughs.
I hope you're curious about healing and spiritual development, love and elation, peace and compulsion, entrapment and recovery.
I hope hearing each other's stories help us all feel less lonely.
Why LEAST FAMOUS?
Well, the name is more literal than figurative.
I’m the least famous daughter of entertainer Pat Boone and his wife, (my mom) Shirley.
My sister Debby Boone sang, “You Light Up My Life,” a pretty big deal in the 70s.
My older sisters, Cherry Boone O’Neill and Lindy Boone Michaelis, have become writers and public figures as well.
Even my maternal grandfather, Red Foley, earned a well-deserved spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
From left to right, meet my mom, Shirley (Foley) Boone, Debby, Lindy, Cherry, Laury (me), and my dad, Pat. This snapshot captures a lighthearted segment from my father’s Chevy Showroom variety show, taken after the four of us popped out of a moving crate to announce the New York show’s move to Hollywood. It also captures the time I was moved into my childhood home.
Combined with more than a decade of touring years as an entertainment family, life on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Beverly Drive delivered proximity to gatherings of stars who were, quite literally, famous. And some, almost famous. Memories from that part of my childhood pop up in my essays from time to time. For example👇
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The Boone house on the corner of Beverly Drive and Sunset Boulevard is the spitting image of Ozzie and Harriet's house on TV, but bigger. Striking in its spaciousness, the colonial home on the coveted three acre lot is endowed with a drive-through breezeway, a basketball half-court and a huge backyard, and there’s an industrial strength swing-set-and-sl…
So, I hope you’ll enjoy a steady sprinkling of tales lived and written through the lens of a child who grew up in an entertainment family in Hollywood.
Within this tale, my story, there was a time when feeling barely there in a line-up of visible creatives once felt like like a sock in my throat, but that ended a long time ago when writing became both my vehicle and my voice. Least Famous is a reclamation of my own distinct creative tone, boldly-ish claiming ownership of my experience, here at the back of the line.
Thank you for looking,
Laury
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If any of this resonates, or if you’re just curious to read more about Why I Write, click here .
