Vera Matson

Vera Matson (July 23, 1909 - November 9, 1994) was the maiden name of [a=Ken Darby]'s wife. Darby chose to credit her for the songs in [a=Elvis Presley]'s film "Love Me Tender", as he did not wish to be credited on any of the songs he wrote for it, but did wish to earn royalties for them -- which he did, through his wife. Vera Matson is also credited as having written the lyrics to the theme to the 1964 Daniel Boone TV show, but whether it was again Darby who actually wrote the lyrics is unknown.

Note that Vera Matson is not a merely a pseudonym of Ken Darby, since the composer actually signed over the rights of certain of his songs to her. Songs credited to Matson are registered with American rights society BMI, while Darby's compositions are registered with ASCAP (no person can be signed with multiple right societies).