Early Life and Education
Lawrence's parents and grandparents were from Tennessee. Lawrence's father attended Vanderbilt University, where he was a noted student-athlete who graduated in 1924. Lawrence was a native of Nashville, and attended local schools. When in the fourth grade, Lawrence composed a poem called Little Fly:
- Little Fly
- I saw a little fly up on the wall.
- I said to him "Little fly, aren't you afraid you'll fall?"
- He looked at me a minute, then winked his eye.
- And then he shifted into second, and then into high.
Lawrence distinguished himself as a student athlete at Nashville's West High School, and in 1947 turned down a scholarship at Yale University to attend the United States Naval Academy.
Read more about this topic: William P. Lawrence
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