Vivian Carter was an African American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 record company executive and radio disc jockey

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

, and one of the co-founders of Vee-Jay Records

Vee-Jay Records

Vee-Jay Records is a record label founded in the 1950s, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.-History:...

.

Life

She was born in Tunica, Mississippi

Tunica, Mississippi

Tunica is a town in Tunica County, Mississippi, United States, located near the Mississippi River. Until the early 1990s the town was one of the most impoverished places in the United States, semi-famous for the particularly deprived neighbourhood known as "Sugar Ditch Alley", named for the open...

 and moved to Gary, Indiana

Gary, Indiana

Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...

 as a child. She met Jimmy Bracken

James Bracken

James C. Bracken was an African American songwriter and the co-founder and co-owner of Vee-Jay Records with his wife Vivian and her brother, Calvin Carter.-Life:...

, later her husband, in 1944, and in 1948 won a talent contest conducted by Al Benson for new radio deejays in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. She worked first at WGES in Chicago, and then WJOB in Hammond, Indiana. In 1950, Carter and Bracken founded Vivian's Record Shop in Gary.

In 1953, the couple decided to set up a new record company, Vee-Jay Records, taking its name from their initials. Later, they brought in her brother Calvin Carter

Calvin Carter

Calvin Carter is the brother of the founder of Vee-Jay Records Vivian Carter. Born May 27, 1925. He joined the company in 1953 and became the principal producer, in charge of the recording sessions. He is a songwriter and composer of jazz and popsongs....

 as the company's A&R

A&R

Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...

 man.

During the 1950s and early 1960s Vee-Jay grew to become a major independent record label with acts including The Spaniels

The Spaniels

The Spaniels were an American R&B doo-wop group, best known for the hit "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite".They have been called the first successful Midwestern R&B group...

, Jimmy Reed

Jimmy Reed

Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...

, John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...

, Gene Chandler

Gene Chandler

Gene Chandler also known as "The Duke of Earl" or simply "The Duke", is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, producer and record executive. He is one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene...

, Jerry Butler

Jerry Butler (singer)

Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...

, The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons (group)

The Four Seasons are an American rock and pop band who became internationally successful in the mid-1960s. The Vocal Group Hall of Fame has stated that the group was the most popular rock band before The Beatles...

 and, for a time, The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

. Meanwhile, Vivian Carter Bracken continued to work in radio. This was undoubtedly a significant factor in attracting talent to their label. However, the company folded in 1966. See main article, Vee-Jay Records

Vee-Jay Records

Vee-Jay Records is a record label founded in the 1950s, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.-History:...

After her husband's death in 1972, she returned from California to Gary, where she was active in radio well into the 1980s. Following a stroke she died in a nursing home in 1989.