Bee Walker

Bertha "Bee" Walker (b. Bertha Wolpa in Indianapolis, 1898 - d. 1987) -- Pianist and composer. While she was playing the popular tunes at a Woolworths in Indianapolis, Abe Oleman discovered her and took her to Chicago, where she became a song plugger at the Ted Snyder Song Shop on State Street. In Chicago, she met Vaudeville performer Rae Samuels and later became the accompanist of Bob Hope and Eddie Cantor. In Chicago and New York City she worked tirelessly for companies that made piano rolls of primarily ragtime music; among them the U.S. Music Company of Chicago, the Rythmodik Music Corporation, Aeolian, the Ampico Reproducing System, and Aeolian Company. She also received some writing credits, most notably on "Hey, Jealous Lover!" (1956), popularized by Frank Sinatra.