Owner Of Print Shop Toured In Vaudeville

Mrs. Georgia A. Bryan, 85, a print shop owner 67 years and a former vaudeville performer, died Friday in St. Luke’s Hospital.

Mrs. Bryan, of Pierce Street, Maumee, started Bryan Printing Co. in 1922 with her husband, the late D. C. Bryan, in their Maumee home. She had previously operated the Bigelow Sisters Print Shop, which she opened in Bowling Green after being graduated from high school in 1916.

While operating the shop in the 1920’s, her husband frequently had to watch the store by himself, as Mrs. Bryan toured with her sisters in an all-girl band, “Bigelow’s Musical Misses,” managed by her brother, the late Jack Bigelow.

The girls won admirers and fans from coast to coast, as they shared billing with names like Edgar Bergen, Jack Benny, and Clara Bow. The troupe disbanded when the age of vaudeville was replaced by nightclubs.

Mrs. Bryan was still active in the printing business, her last job being a letterhead for Maumee schools.

She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star for 50 years.

Surviving are her daughter, Mrs. Virginia Beck; sisters, Mrs. Virginia Hartman and Mrs. Josephine Smith, and brother, Harry Bigelow.

Services will be at l p.m. Tuesday in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The body will be in the Maison-Dardenne Mortuary, Maumee, after 2 p.m. Monday. Eastern Star services will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Mortuary.

The family requests that any tributes be in the form of contributions to the church.