Vera Brady Shipman

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

Vera Brady Shipman
The face of a white woman, wearing glasses.
Vera Brady Shipman, from a 1918 publication.
Born
Vera Corinne Brady

May 26, 1889
Salina, Kansas
DiedFebruary 11, 1932
Chicago, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)journalist, composer, clubwoman
Known forarts journalism, concert promoter

Early life

Vera Corinne Brady was born in Salina, Kansas,[1] the daughter of John Leeford Brady and Julia Mary Simons Hoinville. Her father was a newspaper editor in Kansas,[2] and later in Oregon and Idaho.[3] He also served in both houses of the Kansas Legislature, between 1904 and 1913. Her uncle was James H. Brady, Governor of Idaho.[4] Her mother lived in Chicago.[5] Vera Brady attended Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago,[6] and the Cosmopolitan School of Music.[7]

Career

Shipman taught music and played in churches as a young woman.[8] She played piano accompaniment for various vocalists and instrumentalists, including singer Permelia Gale and cellist Vera Poppe.[9] She wrote music, including a setting of "Po' Li'l Lamb" by Paul Laurence Dunbar,[10] a song sung by her client Rosa Olitzka in concerts.[11][12] She composed the music for Twenty Little Songs for Children (1914), with lyrics by Francesca de Capdevila (who later married cellist Pablo Casals).[13]

Shipman was an arts journalist.[14] She wrote for Radio Digest,[15] Social Progress,[16][17] Musical America,[18] and was music and literary editor of The Salina Daily Union.[19] She also wrote film reviews,[20] and was a correspondent from the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1920.[21] She was heard on radio in the 1920s, including a report from Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans in 1923.[22] She was a vice president of the Chicago chapter of American Pen Women of Illinois.[23] She was a publicist for a Chicago department store,[24][25] and she booked tours and managed musical performers.[26][27]

Personal life

Brady married Melville Percy Shipman, a newspaper colleague of her father's, in 1913.[28][6] They had two daughters, Mary Juliet Shipman (1915-1986)[29] and Sarah Ann Shipman (1921-1926).[30] Vera Brady Shipman moved from Kansas to Chicago in 1922.[31] She died in 1932, aged 42 years, in a Chicago hotel room, possibly by suicide,[32][33] though her family announced that she died from a heart attack.[24] Her grave is in Lawrence, Kansas.[34]

References

  1. "Personal". The Salina Evening Journal. February 26, 1918. p. 2. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Brady Baby". The Salina Daily Union. February 25, 1918. p. 5. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Untitled news item". The Oregon Exchange. 8: 27. December 1924.
  4. Murdock, William Gray (1909). Brady Family Reunion and Fragments of Brady History and Biography. s.n. pp. 111. John Leeford Brady.
  5. "Chicago". The Santa Fe Magazine. 18: 82. October 1924.
  6. "Miss Vera Brady's Marriage". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. September 11, 1913. p. 5. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Miss Brady's Recital". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. June 15, 1911. p. 5. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Miss Brady a Teacher". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. August 28, 1911. p. 3. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Bloomington, Il". Music News. 11: 29. January 10, 1919.
  10. Catalog of Copyright Entries. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1915. p. 1326.
  11. "Salina". Music News. 11: 14. March 28, 1919.
  12. "May Be Heard Here". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. October 16, 1915. p. 5. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Songs for Little Folks". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. October 17, 1914. p. 8. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Untitled news item". Statesman Journal. October 8, 1924. p. 8. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  15. Halper, Donna (2015-02-11). Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting. Routledge. ISBN 9781317520177.
  16. Shipman, Vera Brady (November 1923). "America's Great Tenor". Social Progress. 7: 359–360.
  17. Shipman, Vera Brady (December 1923). "An Ideal Social Leader". Social Progress. 7: 379–380.
  18. "Salinas to Have Two Concert Series During Coming Winter". Musical America. 28: 206. October 19, 1918.
  19. "Covers Story by Plane". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. May 6, 1920. p. 1. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  20. Shipman, Vera Brady (February 5, 1920). "Photoplay Review". The Salina Daily Union. p. 2. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  21. "Mrs. Vera Brady Shipman". The Salina Daily Union. June 3, 1920. p. 1. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Radio 'Listeners In' at 11:35 Heard Vera Brady Shipman". The Salinas Daily Union. February 16, 1923. p. 8. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  23. "Chicago Branch of the American Pen Women of Illinois". Chicago Tribune. June 1, 1930. p. 84. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  24. "Dies Unexpectedly". Lawrence Journal World. February 12, 1932. p. 2. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via NewspaperArchive.com.
  25. "Obituaries: Vera Brady Shipman". Women's Wear Daily. February 19, 1932. p. 21 via ProQuest.
  26. "Vera Brady Shipman". Music News. 11: 12. March 7, 1919.
  27. "Shipman Concert Series". The Musical Leader. 36: 274. September 19, 1918.
  28. "About Vera Brady Shipman". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. August 17, 1915. p. 4. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  29. "Untitled society item". Statesman Journal. November 9, 1924. p. 16. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  30. "Granddaughter of Former Statesman Editor Dies in Pocatello, Idaho". Statesman Journal. December 30, 1926. p. 7. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  31. "Shipman". Music News. 14: 9. February 24, 1922.
  32. "Chicago Club Editor is Discovered Dead in Room". Wausau Daily Herald. February 12, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  33. "Woman Editor Found Dead; Mrs. Vera Shipman of Chicago Paper is Believed a Suicide". The New York Times. February 12, 1932. p. 12 via ProQuest.
  34. "Gone to Kansas". St. Cloud Times. February 17, 1932. p. 6. Retrieved August 9, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
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