Vera Keyes

Vera Keyes was a pre-War starlet for whom Frederick Sinclair built the Sierra Madre.

Background
Vera Keyes was a well-known Hollywood starlet before the War, whose claim to fame was a number of poorly-written romances that drew in large box office crowds and poor reviews, such as Love Sets Sail! She was one of the celebrities invited to the Grand Opening of the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort. Of all the guests there, she had a special connection to the casino; she was the inspiration for its construction by its founder, Frederick Sinclair. Sinclair worshipped the ground she walked on, and built the casino as both a monument to her and a fortress to protect her. Sinclair wasn't a naive man; he could see the war on the horizon, and he wanted his love to be safe from it. So he built the Sierra Madre, with its vault as the ultimate nuclear fallout shelter, for him and his love. Vera's voice was the key to the casino's vault, specifically, the words "begin again" and "let go," spoken in her voice into a specific terminal in the casino would activate the elevator down into the casino's bowels.

Dean Domino, an old flame of Vera's, introduced her to Sinclair after seeing that she had caught his eye. However, Dean had grown resentful of the other man and decided to take everything from him, and Vera had agreed to help with his plan. When she later started to get cold feet, he secured her assistance by blackmailing her with evidence of "indiscretions" and addictions to Med-X and super stimpaks. What he did not know was that the addictions stemmed from her taking the drugs as pain relief, a refuge from a terminal illness. Vera, eventually overcome with guilt, told Sinclair of the plot. Although he had long known of her and Domino's intentions, he had managed to bear that fact. But this knowledge blackened Sinclair's heart, and he turned the vault into a trap for Domino, making it impossible to leave so that he would have an eternity to contemplate his betrayal. Sinclair eventually relented, and attempted to return the casino to its original purpose, but this proved impossible; it had been built simply too well. He did what he could and hoped that after the doors to the vault locked, the Sierra Madre Broadcast, the casino's emergency signal, would bring help from the authorities and unlock the vault's treasure: Vera.

On the night the bombs dropped, the night of the Grand Opening, the casino locked its doors and its security systems activated. The holograms massacred the guests, and Vera was trapped in her room, with only one way out. She wrote her last words on the wall, and took an overdose of the chem cocktail which had both saved her from and caused so much pain already. A malfunction with the emergency broadcast, something to do with the Gala Event drawing power from the security systems to save money, caused the advertisement for the casino's grand opening to be sent across the airwaves, rather than the intended broadcast. For over two centuries, Vera's voice would act as bait, not for the rescue Sinclair had hoped for, but for potential treasure hunters, luring them to their deaths, urging them to come to the Sierra Madre, a place where they could begin again.

Appearances
Vera Keyes' corpse, recorded voice and holograms in her likeness appear in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money. She is also mentioned in Old World Blues with many posters and pictures of her throughout the research facilities. She is also mentioned in the Fallout 4 add-on Far Harbor in dialogue with Gilda Broscoe.

Behind the scenes
One of her songs, Begin Again, can be heard on the Bethesda Blog and in game on the Mysterious broadcast radio station added by Old World Blues. It is performed by Stephanie Dowling and Justin Bell, with lyrics by Mikey Dowling and Chris Avellone. Other songs by her include Let the Bright Tomorrow in and Go to the Faraway.