A native of Gardiner, Maine, Vannah began to play the organ at the age of nine. She began composing after formal musical training, and her most famous works are Dr. Heath’s “Flag Song” and the hymn for the International Eucharist Congress in 1926.

During her lifetime, Vannah published two volumes of poetry: Verses (1883) and From Heart to Heart (1879). She moved in the same circle of Maine writers as poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, and her influence was important in helping him publish his poetry in The Globe.

–Christie Finn