Laura Avery Sumner (maiden name Murphy) is a fictional character from the CBS soap opera Knots Landing, a long-running serial about middle class life on the fictional cul-de-sac known as Seaview Circle in Los Angeles, California. She was played by actress Constance McCashin between 1979 and 1987. She debuted in the pilot episode and remained a principal actor in the series until the ninth-season episode "The Gift of Life".