Martha Mears — Martha Mears. (Original Photograph). (Signed)

[New York?]: 1932-35. Autographed. Black & White photograph. 3.5 x 5.5 inches, including border. Very Good. Mounted on card. Signed in ink. Martha Mears (July 18, 1910 - December 13, 1986) was a radio and film contralto singer, active from the 1930s to 1950s. Mears was born in Mexico, Missouri. Her mother died when Mears was 4 years old, and she went to live with her grandmother. Five years later, she began living with an aunt and uncle in Moberly, Missouri. She began taking singing lessons when she was 15. She graduated from Moberly (Missouri) High School, Moberly Junior College and then, in 1933, from the University of Missouri with plans to be a teacher. On a post-graduation trip to New York City, however, her search for a teaching position was unsuccessful. Instead she found a job with Gus Edwards' Stars of Tomorrow show. From a collection of photographs and other ephemera removed from the scrapbook of a radio music enthusiast. .