She was born in Manchester, England on January 11, 1909. Vera was one of four children. After her father walked out on the family her mother supported them by working as a psychic medium. At the age of sixteen Vera began performing in London nightclubs. On May 12, 1928 she impulsively married William Krohm, a thirty-eight year old American who claimed to be a millionaire. Soon after the couple moved to New York City. She was shocked to discover that Frederick was not a millionaire and he actually worked as a low paid telephone operator. Sadly in January of 1929 their infant son died when he was just seven days old. Vera made her Broadway debut in Earl Carroll's Sketchbook during the Summer of 1929. The following year she was featured in Earl Carroll's Vanities. She was fired from the show because she kept talking to the other dancers on stage. Then Flo Ziegfeld gave her a role in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931. The press called her "the dumbest blonde on Broadway" because she was always saying silly things in interviews.
Vera once said she didn't want to be a Broadway butterfly because "all butterflies turn into cocoons". After divorcing her husband in 1933 she briefly returned to England. She married trumpet player "Wild" Bill Davison in 1937. The couple separated a few months later and she reunited with her first husband William. Unfortunately in October of 1939 their baby daughter was stillborn. By this time her show business career was over. Vera found work as a taxi dancer and a hat check girl. In an interview she said "I was a Ziegfeld beauty. I was being inundated with film offers and was climbing to the top of the theatrical tree - then along came a tough break." She made headlines in July of 1948 when she was arrested for smoking marijuana. Vera pleaded guilty and got a suspended sentence. Tragically on August 3, 1952 she died from pneumonia at the age of forty-three. Her friends at the Ziegfeld Club paid for her funeral. She was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
