Yahoo Web Search

Vashti Bunyan was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1945 to John Bunyan and Helen Webber, and moved to London at six months old. Although she has been said to be descended from The Pilgrim's Progress author John Bunyan, this is a claim she has herself denied. In the early 1960s, she studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University, but was expelled for focusing on music instead of art.

1960s

At age 18, she travelled to New York and discovered the music of Bob Dylan through his The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album and decided to become a full-time musician. Returning to London, she was discovered by The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham. In June 1965, under his d

2000-present time

In 2000, Just Another Diamond Day was re-released on CD, assuring her influence over a new generation of folk artists such as Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. In 2001, Banhart wrote to her asking for her advice, beginning her connection with many of the contemporary performers

In 2008, Bunyan has been labelled "the Godmother of Freak Folk" for her role in inspiring the "new generation of folk experimentalists including Devendra Banhart and Adem". Her music has also been categorized as folk, psychedelic folk, or new folk. Despite these classifications, she has stated multiple times she is not a folk singer: " I find it quite hard to read myself described as a folk singer, because I’m not."; Her former producer Joe Boyd also underlines this in the 2008 Kieran ...

Named after the Old Testament feminist Queen Vashti and born as Vashti Ruth Cromwell in Lyons, New York, she was raised in nearby Rochester, New York. Baptized Lutheran, she was not raised in any religion and her father later became an atheist. She attended Cornell University on a full tuition scholarship until the stock market crash and deepening economic depression depleted the scholarship fund and forced her to withdraw from Cornell. She later transferred to the University of Illinois.

She met her husband-to-be, John Paschal McCollum, at Champaign-Urbana, and the couple married in 1933. The McCollums had three children: James, Dannel, and Errol. Dannel McCollum later served three four-year terms as mayor of Champaign, Illinois and wrote a book on the case that became the basis for a PBS documentary, The Lord Is Not on Trial Here.

In 1944, James McCollum, then a fourth grader enrolled in the Champaign public schools, came home with a parental consent form for his attendance at "voluntary" religion classes during the school day. The form allowed choice between Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish instruction. The religious education program in the Champaign public schools had been established in 1940, and was based on a concept known as released time. Released time was also known as the "Gary plan," after Gary, Indiana, where

McCollum's suit, Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Ed. of School Dist. No. 71, Champaign Cty., was filed in the 6th judicial circuit court and sought to bar the classes, which were taught by members of a private religious association and not public school employees. The petition before the court complained the school district's practice was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which provides that the state will not establish or favor one religion over another relig

On June 2, 1947, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and arguments started December 8, 1947. Attorney Walter F. Dodd represented the plaintiff and John L. Franklin again served as counsel for the State of Illinois. In an 8-1 decision announced on March 8, 1948 333 U.S. 203, the court reversed the ruling of the lower courts and held that the school district's religious instruction program was unconstitutional. A critical issue in the case was whether the constitutional ban on establishing

Vashti was born on May 28, 1947, in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the daughter of Samuel Edward Smith and Ida Murphy Smith Peters. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Vashti Turley Murphy, who was one of 22 women who founded the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in 1913, while a student at Howard University. McKenzie's maternal grandfather, Carl J. Murphy, was the publisher and chief editor of the Baltimore Afro-American, a black newspaper started by his father, John H. Murphy, Sr. The newspape

After graduating with her degree, McKenzie pursued journalism as a career. She worked at WYCB Radio, and was host of an R&B show. She later was promoted to Station Manager, which was a position few women held at the time. She continued in broadcasting for several years. She also wrote a column for the Afro-American, entitled "The McKenzie Report." However, she felt a calling to the ministry, and began studies at Howard University School of Divinity where she obtained a Masters of Divinity. She w

Vashti Murphy McKenzie and her husband have three children: Jon-Mikael McKenzie, Vashti-Jasmine Saint-Jean, and Joi-Marie McKenzie Lewis.

As editor: 1. Those Sisters Can Preach!: 22 Pearls of Wisdom, Virtue and Hope. ISBN 978-0829819847