Vera Brady Shipman (May 26, 1889 – February 11, 1932) was an American composer, journalist, talent manager, and concert promoter, based in Kansas and Chicago.

Early life

Vera Corinne Brady was born in

Salina, Kansas Salina is a city in, and the county seat of, Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,889. In the early 1800s, the Kanza tribal land reached eastward from the middle of the Kansas Territory. In 1 ...

, the daughter of

John Leeford Brady John Leeford Brady (August 18, 1866 – March 26, 1933) was an American lawyer, politician, and newspaper editor. Biography Brady was born in Monticello Township, Johnson County, Kansas. He went to public school and Baker University. Brady was ...

and Julia Mary Simons Hoinville. Her father was a newspaper editor in Kansas, and later in Oregon and Idaho. He also served in both houses of the

Kansas Legislature The Kansas Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a bicameral assembly, composed of the lower Kansas House of Representatives, with 125 state representatives, and the upper Kansas Senate, with 40 state senators. ...

, between 1904 and 1913. Her uncle was

James H. Brady James Henry Brady (June 12, 1862 – January 13, 1918) was a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Idaho. He served as the state's eighth governor from 1909 to 1911 and a United States Senator for nearly five years, from 1913 until his d ...

, Governor of Idaho. Her mother lived in Chicago. Vera Brady attended

Hyde Park Academy High School Hyde Park Academy High School (formerly known as Hyde Park High School and Hyde Park Career Academy) is a public 4–year high school located in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1863, Hyd ...

in Chicago, and the Cosmopolitan School of Music.

Career

Shipman taught music and played in churches as a young woman. She played piano accompaniment for various vocalists and instrumentalists, including singer Permelia Gale and cellist Vera Poppe. She wrote music, including a setting of "Po' Li'l Lamb" by

Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...

, a song sung by her client

Rosa Olitzka Rosa Olitzka (September 6, 1873 – September 29, 1949) was a German-born contralto singer. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1895 to 1901, and with the Chicago Opera from 1910 to 1911. Early life Rosa Olitzka was born in Berlin; her ...

in concerts. She composed the music for ''Twenty Little Songs for Children'' (1914), with lyrics by Francesca de Capdevila (who later married cellist

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), usually known in English by his Castilian Spanish name Pablo Casals,

). Shipman was an arts journalist. She wrote for ''Radio Digest,'' ''Social Progress,'' ''Musical America,'' and was music and literary editor of ''The Salina Daily Union.'' She also wrote film reviews, and was a correspondent from the

Republican National Convention The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...

in Chicago in 1920. She was heard on radio in the 1920s, including a report from

Mardi Gras Mardi Gras (, ) refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday. is French for "Fat ...

festivities in New Orleans in 1923. She was a vice president of the Chicago chapter of American Pen Women of Illinois. She was a publicist for a Chicago department store, and she booked tours and managed musical performers.

Personal life

Brady married Melville Percy Shipman, a newspaper colleague of her father's, in 1913. They had two daughters, Mary Juliet Shipman (1915-1986) and Sarah Ann Shipman (1921-1926). Vera Brady Shipman moved from Kansas to Chicago in 1922. She died in 1932, aged 42 years, in a Chicago hotel room, possibly by suicide, though her family announced that she died from a heart attack. Her grave is in

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shipman, Vera Brady 1889 births 1932 deaths People from Salina, Kansas Writers from Kansas Journalists from Kansas American women composers American women writers Hyde Park Academy High School alumni