Editing Maila Nurmi (section)

==Early life==
Maila Nurmi was born to Onni Niemi (earlier Syrjäniemi), a [[Finland|Finnish]] immigrant, and Sophia Peterson, an American of Finnish descent.{{Sfn|Poole|2014|pages=33–34}} Her place of birth was at one time disputed: according to biographer W. Scott Poole in ''Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror'' (2014), she was born in [[Gloucester, Massachusetts]].{{Sfn|Poole|2014|p=32}} During her career, she claimed to have been born in [[Pechengsky District|Petsamo, Finland]],{{Sfn|Cotter|2016|p=150}} claiming she was the niece of Finnish athlete [[Paavo Nurmi]], who began setting long-distance running world records in 1921, the year before her birth.{{Sfn|Poole|2014|p=32}} Public U.S. immigration records show her father's immigration at [[Ellis Island]] in 1910.{{Sfn|Poole|2014|p=34}} Additionally, [[Dana Gould]] claimed in a 2014 public interview that he had seen Nurmi's birth certificate, which listed her birthplace as [[Gloucester, Massachusetts]].<ref name=gould>{{cite interview|url=http://risk-show.com/podcast/live-from-san-fran-2014 |work=Risk Podcast |title=Live from San Francisco 2014 |time=from 30:16 |access-date=January 9, 2017 |interviewer=Dana Gould |archive-date=July 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702035715/http://risk-show.com/podcast/live-from-san-fran-2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In her personal diary, Nurmi admitted the Petsamo story was fiction.<ref>{{cite news | author=Frilander, Aino | title=Vampira | newspaper=Helsingin Sanomat | date=February 28, 2021 | pages=C 1–3 | url=http://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000007825212.html | language=Finnish | url-access=subscription | type=book review }}</ref>

During her childhood, Nurmi relocated with her family from Massachusetts to [[Ashtabula, Ohio]], before settling in [[Astoria, Oregon]], a city on the [[Oregon Coast]] with a large Finnish community.{{Sfn|Poole|2014| p=36}} Her father worked as a lecturer and editor; her mother also worked as a part-time journalist and translator to support the family.{{Sfn|Poole|2014|pages=34–36}} Nurmi graduated from [[Astoria High School (Oregon)|Astoria High School]] in 1940.{{Sfn|Poole|2014|p=46}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailyastorian.com/ear/20141031/in-one-ear-shes-still-haunting-us |title=In One Ear: She's still haunting us |work=The Daily Astorian |archive-date=April 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150425215754/http://www.dailyastorian.com/ear/20141031/in-one-ear-shes-still-haunting-us |date=October 31, 2014 |last=Wilson |first=Elleda |url-status=dead }}</ref>