As a teenager she played many sports, including fencing, sailing, archery, canoeing, horseback riding, water skiing, and tennis.
Combes attended St. Petersburg College Prep School, and then went to the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Combes made a dramatic national television appearance that year on the NBC series Real People.
After the airing of a taped segment about female bodybuilding in which she had been featured, Combes carried host Skip Stephenson onto stage in front of the studio audience.
Laura Combes was found dead in her apartment in Odessa, Florida on October 4, 1989, from acute alcohol poisoning.