Just back from my daily Death March (walk) and I found the then-80-year-old Vera's 1991 obit. Here is an excerpt:
"...Vera Hicks was synonymous with custom-made women's clothing in St. Louis for many years. She designed and made the gowns for the Veiled Prophet queen and special maids each year for 12 years during the 1940s and 1950s. That was while she was head of the custom-made clothing department for the old Scruggs, Vandervoort and Barney department store and later in her own shop in the Park Plaza Hotel.
In 1938, she and her mother went into the custom dressmaking business together in Clayton, where she began making her reputation as a designer. Scruggs bought out their shop in 1948, turning it into the store's custom-made clothing department. She left the department store in 1954. A few years later, she opened the Vera Hicks Shop at the Park Plaza. She operated it for 17 years..."