Maurice Richard - Personal Life

Personal Life

Born August 4, 1921, Maurice Richard was the eldest of eight children (five sons: Maurice, Henri, Claude, René and Jacques; three daughters: Rollande, Marguerite and Georgette) of Onesime and Alice Richard. Onesime and Alice had moved from the Gaspé region to Nouveau-Bordeaux so that Onesime could work as a machinist at the Canadian Pacific Railway. At age four, he began playing hockey on a backyard rink, built by his father. As a teen, Richard excelled at baseball and boxing. He played hockey as much as he could, sometimes twice per night and four games on the week-end. To play on more than one team, Richard adopted aliases, the most well known-being Maurice Rochon.

Richard married teenage sweetheart Lucille Norchet against the wishes of her father in 1942. Maurice had met Lucille when she was thirteen and he was sixteen, when he was playing for the Paquette Club in the Park Lafontaine Juvenile League, which was coached by Lucille's brother George. They announced their engagement when she was 17 and Maurice was 20. At 16, Maurice dropped out of school and worked with his father as a machinist and that was his only income other than some income in the winter with the senior Canadiens. They would have seven children: Huguette, Maurice Jr., Norman, André, Suzanne, and Jean. Lucille died in 1994. After Lucille died, Maurice's last companion was Sonia Raymond.