10 things you didn't know about Althea Laing

AT THE top of her game, when she stormed the runways of the world gracing the pages of fashion magazines all over, she was dubbed 'La Laing'. This was a testimony to her signature and uncommon modelling style and domination of the national modelling scene and her breakthrough on to the world stage.

The year was 1985 and Althea Laing was her name, and by modelling standards, at the ripe old age of 26, or thereabouts, the one-time teacher turned life insurance supersaleswoman had confounded her critics and turned the modelling world on its head. Emerging as Jamaica's fashion model - the springboard from which many a modelling careers had been launched, but which Althea Laing would make her signature statement, she went on to become the first home-grown, discovered and nurtured international model. Laing managed to grace the cover of the international beauty and fashion magazine, Essence, not once, but twice in her lifetime.

An accomplished cook and mother who had to father her two sons, Laing says her life experiences have taught her love and tolerance, but she still cannot abide an untidy bathroom and says it's her pet peeve.

Of recent reports of the mob killing of the reported cross-dresser, Laing confessed this left her with a deep sense of horror and sadness as she says the world is complete because all its children, including gays, who are not aliens but our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. Today, Althea Laing is back to her first love - teaching. As stunning as ever even as a grandmother, the St Elizabeth-born and nurtured trailblazer is no less spunky than she was when she stormed the runways of Kingston to outmodel many a younger hopeful to win the coveted crown of Miss Jamaica Fashion Model.

Today, Outlook shares 10 things not previously known about the charismatic and sometimes enigmatic Althea Reynolds Laing!

1. She is a lover of all genres of music and is an accomplished piano player, having played the piano up to grade five and passed all Royal Schools of Music exams (theory and practical) with distinctions from grades one to four while at Hampton High School for Girls, where she served as a member of the choir.

2. Laing was the first-ever entertainment manager at the Shaw Park Beach Hotel in Ocho Rios, and introduced a number of first and innovative cultural offerings as part and parcel of the visitor's experience.

3. She has made her home a refuge for children going through difficult periods and has shared her home with at least 17 children over the past 10 years.

4. Laing was the youngest student to be registered in the teacher-training department at the Excelsior Community College at age 16.

5. Teaching is in her DNA and she taught at Haile Selassie Secondary and Black River Primary schools. Her parents and grandfather, Cyril Thompson, served as principals of primary schools.

6. She was an actress in an earlier dispensation, and played the lead juvenile role of 'Cherry P' in Sheila Carter's One Time Long Time in 1976. After that, she landed a cameo appearance in the full-length movie Daughters of the Dust.

7. She is the grandchild of Nathaniel Reynolds, one of St Elizabeth's illustrious sons and a renowned farmer.

8. Laing was first runner-up in the St Elizabeth festival queen competition in 1976.

9. Upon reflection, Laing considers her marriage a life-changing experience, so much so that today she experiences extreme paranoia whenever she hears the word or is faced with the prospect of such a proposal.

10. She considers being the founder of The Althea Laing English Language Academy, Mandeville's premier tutoring service, as one of her proudest and most fulfilling accomplishments.