| Born | 6 November 1965 Garwood, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  United States |
| Nickname | "Queen of the Hill" |
| Professional | 1976 |
| Pool games | Straight pool, nine-ball |
| Tournament wins | |
| World Champion | Straight pool (1981, 1986), Nine-ball (1984, 1993) |
LoreeJon Ogonowski-Brown (formerly LoreeJon Jones, LoreeJon Hasson, sometimes known mononymically as LoreeJon; born November 6, 1965[1][2]) is a professional pool player.
A child prodigy who began playing at the age of 4 at her home in Garwood, New Jersey, she picked up the game from her father, John Ogonowski.[3]
Recognizing her talent, her father built wooden boxes around the table so she would be the correct height for him to teach her the sport. Her father was her instructor, and her mother became her daily practice partner. She ran her first rack of balls at age 5. She performed her first three trick shots at age 6 in Chicago at a men's World Straight Pool tournament. At age 11, she became a pro player with the Women's Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) and came to be known as "Queen of the Hill".
Aged 15, she won the World Straight Pool Championship, becoming the youngest player, male or female, ever to win a world championship. From 1981 to 1996, she won many tournaments, three WPBA National Championships, BCA U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, WPBA U.S. Open 9-ball Championship, and the All Japan Championship. When she won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship, she had held every title possible in women's professional pool. At the time of her 2002 induction into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame, and 2008 Women's Professional Billiard Association Hall of Fame, she held over 50 major titles, and over the course of her career was recognized five times as "Player of the Year" by Pool & Billiards Magazine and Billiards Digest.
Coming out of retirement and making a comeback, Ogonowski-Brown won the 2017 Super Billiards Expo Players Championship. She was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in June 2022.
- ^ Queen of the Hill. "Loree Jon Hasson". AZBilliards.com.
- ^ InsidePoolMag Retrieved 2015-07-07.
- ^ Berkow, Ira. "Billiards: A Top Player Survives That Sinking Feeling", The New York Times, August 12, 1995. Accessed October 23, 2007. "LoreeJon had been a child prodigy, picking up the game at 4 from her pool-loving father, John Ogonowski, in Garwood, N.J."