Laura Ann Carleton biography: 13 things about Los Angeles, California fashion entrepreneur

Laura Ann “Lauri” Rosenthal Carleton was a longtime resident of Studio City, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States. She also lived in Lake Arrowhead, San Bernardino County, California.

An LGBTQ+ advocate, Lauri had a Pride flag hanging outside of her clothing store Mag.Pi in Cedar Glen, San Bernardino County. She ran another store of the same name in Studio City.

Lauri was 39 years older than Travis Kirby Ikeguchi. They did not know each other until the evening of August 18, 2023 when he went to his Mag.Pi store in Cedar Glen.

That night, Ikeguchi yelled many homophobic slurs towards Lauri. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. Aside from Studio City and Lake Arrowhead, she lived in other parts of California including San Bernardino, Canoga Park, Sherman Oaks and Pasadena.
2. She lived in different parts of Vermont, USA including Hardwick and East Calais.
3. She worked at Kenneth Kole Productions for 15 years before becoming an independent business owner. 
4. While attending the Art Center School of Design in Pasadena, she started working in their family business at Fred Segal Feet in Los Angeles.
5. She was 13 years younger than her husband Bort Carleton, a shoe designer.
6. She and Bort owned a restored 1920’s Fisherman’s Cabin in Lake Arrowhead.
7. In 1993, she and Bort bought a house in Studio City.
8. In 1995, she and Bort got married and she became the stepmother of his seven children from a previous relationship. The couple adopted twin sisters Arielle R. Carleton and Kelsey E. Carleton who were born that year.
9. On July 30, 2013, she founded Mag.Pi, Inc.
10. In 2019, she left an envelope filled with cash for a friend with a note “Buy a bigger sign” after a sign one saying “Love is love” and another sign supporting Joe Biden were stolen from outside the friend’s home.
11. She was friends with Paul Feig, who directed the 2022 film “The School for Good and Evil”.
12. In June 2023, she met “Sex and the City” star Kristin Davis when the actress shopped in one of her Mag.Pi stores.
13. On August 18, 2023, Ikeguchi tore the LGBTQ+ Pride flag outside of her Mag.Pi clothing store in Cedar Glen and used an unregistered Smith & Wesson 9mm automatic semi-automatic pistol to fatally shoot her in the head. She was 66.

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