Connie Converse’s voice, both playful and heartfelt, carries a lightness that draws in listeners. Her lyrics, accompanied by guitar strumming, oscillate between rebellious resolve and moments of mournfulness.

“People say a roving woman/is likely not to be better than she ought to be/So when I stray away from where I got to be/someone always takes me home,” Concord-raised Converse sings at the beginning of her song “Roving Woman.”

Converse’s music, written in the ‘50s, gained most of its listeners in the 21st century, decades after she disappeared without a trace at age 50. Her songs offer a window into her independent nature and build a picture of a woman who saw the world with a clear gaze and chafed at the limitations imposed on her gender at the time.

Born Elizabeth Eaton Converse in Laconia in 1924, Converse grew up in Concord, the daughter of a Baptist minister. She graduated as the valedictorian of her class at Concord High School and received a full scholarship to Mount Holyoke College, where she studied for two years. Coming from a traditional and religious family, Converse decided to chart her own path, leaving school and moving to New York. She dreamed of becoming a writer and began penning songs that she played for her friends. Converse, who decided to go by Connie, found herself as a female singer-songwriter in a world where few existed.

With the support of animator Gene Deitch, who dabbled in sound engineering, she performed on CBS’s “The Morning Show” with Walter Cronkite in 1954. Deitch also made numerous tape recordings of Converse in his home. But her music did not draw public attention as she hoped it would. Disillusioned with the lack of response to her music, she moved to Michigan and eventually became the managing editor of the Journal of Conflict Resolution. Throughout her career, Converse explored different forms of creative expression, including as a cartoonist, reporter, essayist, and more.

By the early 1970s, she struggled with depression and turned to drinking and smoking. In August 1974, she loaded her possessions into her Volkswagen Beetle and set off to an unknown destination. This was the last time anyone heard from her. Only after she disappeared did her loved ones receive letters she had written prior to her departure speaking of her desire to build a life elsewhere. No trace of Converse or her car was ever found.

On what would have been her 100th birthday, the Concord Public Library held a ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 3 commemorating her life. At “Connie Converse at 100: A Concord Salute,” Mayor Byron Champlin presented a proclamation recognizing Converse’s life to her second cousin Joseph Thomas Converse. Howard Fishman, author of “To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse” and retired Concord High School social studies teacher Christopher Makris also participated in the ceremony.

Makris, who learned about Converse from multiple of his former students a few years ago, listened to her music and felt inspired to make her story better known in her hometown. He got coffee with Champlin in the spring and began planning the proclamation and the ceremony with the help of Fishman, whom he had met at a book signing event for his biography of Converse.

“I wanted to get involved here because she wasn’t being recognized to the extent that she should be by her hometown,” Makris said. “I think there are a lot of people, whether they be writers, musicians, artists, or whatever, who work out of their homes or what have you, and they’re not recognized. I think Connie’s story lets them know that just because they’re not recognized right here, right now, doesn’t mean that what they’re doing isn’t important.”

Indeed, Converse’s music became better known in the 2000s after Deitch went on Spinning on Air, David Garland’s radio show, and played his recording of Converse’s song “One by One” in 2004. Listeners Dan Dazula and David Herman, both of whom heard the show, set about compiling Converse’s work into an album that eventually came out under the name “How Sad, How Lovely” in 2009.

Fishman, who first began listening to Converse’s music in 2010, described the ceremony as a very emotional experience.

“When I was researching my book, I made several trips to Concord to research not only her time there but also to try to find any connections to her that might remain in Concord, and I couldn’t,” Fishman said. “No one had ever heard of Connie Converse. There was zero civic awareness of this incredible person who came from Concord.”

The more he learned about Converse and her story, the more he felt she deserved recognition for her accomplishments.

“To go from there being no awareness of Connie Converse in her hometown to, a year later, having the mayor present a proclamation honoring her for her achievements was very, very meaningful,” Fishman added. “I think her story is about any of us who have ever had a feeling of not being seen or not being known because we’re not conforming to some path that has been prescribed by society. And she was not a conformist. She chose her own way, and that way is often harder.”

Joseph Thomas Converse, two and a half decades younger than his second cousin, explained that her music was never mentioned in the Converse family.

“I had never heard much about it beyond that she had moved to New York,” Joseph Thomas Converse said. “I knew her as Elizabeth. Her father was a Baptist minister in Concord, very straitlaced and formal. When Howard [Fishman] approached me, it came as a complete revelation to me that she had this whole musical life and, after that, the professional editorship of a scholarly magazine.”

Joseph Thomas Converse traveled to Concord from Georgia to attend the ceremony and receive the proclamation from Champlin.

“I’m so proud of her for rebelling and going out and making her own life,” Joseph Thomas Converse added.

As mayor, Champlin issues many proclamations, but he described this experience as special because it involved recognizing someone important and previously unknown to Concord’s history.

“It was wonderful for me to participate in the rediscovery of an important figure in our nation’s musical history,” Champlin said. “During the ceremony on Saturday, I urged people to type her name in Spotify, find her music and give it a listen.”

John Huckins, one of the students who first introduced Makris to Converse’s music, described his first encounter with Converse’s music.

“It’s very beautiful music – simple, understood songwriting – and it feels nostalgic,” said Huckins, who drove up from Massachusetts with his parents and several friends and their parents for the ceremony. “I was drawn in by its uniqueness and at the same time sort of familiarity.”

Following the proclamation, the ceremony included a question and answer session in which some attendees asked about the possibility of erecting a monument or marker to Converse somewhere in the city. While no current plans exist, since it would require going through the state, Joseph Thomas Converse expressed hopes that people will continue to remember his cousin.

There is so much the world will never know about Connie Converse. What happened to her when she drove off in her car that day in August 1974? What would have become of her and her music had she not disappeared? Listening again to the beginning of her song “Roving Woman,” one cannot help but wonder where she roved to and whether last weekend’s ceremony, in some way, brought her home.

More information about Connie Converse’s life can be found at https://conversefamily.com/elizabeth-connie-converse and in Howard Fishman’s book “To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse.”

Rachel Wachman can be reached at rwachman@cmonitor.com.