Age 25. 82 Fowler Street, Dorchester (Boston), MA. Born on 10/31/1917, in Boston. Died of burns (death certificate). Civilian typist for the U.S. Army, Ordnance Department. Volunteer War Bonds salesgirl. Was stationed at a small wooden desk located in the club main foyer (visible tipped over in post-fire police photos). Known by her first name Laura, also by her middle name "Libby." Was substituting for another girl (unnamed) so the latter could see the nearby Irving Berlin stage production, "This Is The Army." Boston Daily Record, 11/30/1942: "She gave her life for her country just as surely as if she had been on one of the far frontiers of the world." Boston Daily Record, 12/01/1942: "Ironically, too, she had accepted the invitation of friends to join them in the Melody Lounge for a few moments, otherwise she would have been in the bond booth near the main exit..." Bonds sales partner and survivor Miss Edith Finkelstein, age 43 (Born 12/01/1898. Died 8/26/1991, age 92. Last residence Kingston, RI. Never married), of the fire, at the city inquests: "It came up so quickly that this other girl that I was selling with...left me two minutes before to go down to this Melody Lounge with this fellow who just came in...and I don't think they even had time to get seated down there..." (inquest transcript, 12/07/1942). Was referred to indirectly in an 11/30/1942 Boston Evening Globe article about the family of Grove busboy Stanley Tomaszewski, age 16 (Born 5/08/1926. Died 10/20/1994, age 68. Last residence Framingham, MA), escaped: "Stanley's father had been janitor of the Beth El Congregation, a synagogue at 94 Fowler st., Dorchester...next door to the house of one of the victims of Cocoanut Grove." Was single. Middle initial was misrecorded as "A." on the final official November 1943 Boston Committee on Public Safety master list of casualties. Was the lone club-occupant fire victim (of 488, also two outside passing rescuers died) who was neither a patron nor employed directly by the Grove as an employee or entertainer (was a non-paid sales volunteer). Parents Mr. and Mrs. Abraham B. and Ida (Levantinsky) Cohen, same address. Burial at Mount Lebanon (Beth El) Cemetery, West Roxbury (Boston), MA.

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