A Life Beside American History
When I trace Susanna Wilson Coggeshall’s life, I find a family story running beside one of the great public careers of the twentieth century. Her mother, Frances Perkins, became the first woman in a United States Cabinet. Susanna lived much more privately, moving through marriages, motherhood, family tensions, and later years at an old Maine homestead.
She was born in New York City on December 30, 1916, the only surviving child of Perkins and economist Paul Caldwell Wilson. Her name appears in several forms, including Susanna Perkins Wilson and Susanna Winslow Perkins Wilson. These variations describe the same woman, later known as Susanna W. Coggeshall.
I think her story benefits from resisting an easy assumption: being the daughter of a historic figure did not make her own life a public institution. Much remains unknown about her education and work. The established details concern family, place, and her participation in preserving memories of her mother.
Growing Up in the Perkins Wilson Household
Frances Perkins and Paul Wilson married in 1913. Perkins retained her own surname, a decision that became part of her distinctive professional identity. Their daughter arrived three years later.
Paul worked as a financial statistician and came from a prosperous merchant family. After Susanna’s birth, serious mental illness increasingly affected his ability to work. Frances became the principal financial support for both husband and daughter while continuing her public career.
Susanna was 16 when her mother became Secretary of Labor in 1933. Perkins remained in that office until 1945, throughout Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency. The household therefore combined enormous public responsibility with private strain.
Accounts of Susanna’s later life also describe mental health difficulties. I would treat that history carefully, without making a diagnosis or reducing her identity to illness. It is relevant to the family circumstances, but it does not explain every relationship or decision.
Two Marriages and an Artistic Circle
On March 12, 1938, Susanna married David Meredith Hare at the Church of the Resurrection in New York City. Hare became known as a surrealist sculptor, photographer, and painter. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1945. No child of that marriage has been established.
Her second husband, Calvert Coggeshall, was an abstract painter and designer. Their marriage began in the early 1950s, with 1953 commonly given, although the exact date is less securely confirmed. They remained married until his death on February 1, 1990.
I am struck by how the two marriages connect Susanna with different currents of modern art. Hare worked in surrealism. Calvert’s career involved abstraction, gallery exhibitions, and a Guggenheim fellowship in 1978. Yet proximity to artists does not establish a separate art career for Susanna. The occasional description of her as an art historian remains unverified.
| Person | Relationship to Susanna | Key detail |
|---|---|---|
| Frances Perkins | Mother | Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 |
| Paul Caldwell Wilson | Father | Economist and financial statistician |
| David Meredith Hare | First husband | Married in 1938 and divorced in 1945 |
| Calvert Coggeshall | Second husband | Abstract painter and designer |
| Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall | Son | Born September 25, 1954 |
Motherhood and a Complicated Bond
Susanna and Calvert’s son, Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall, was born on September 25, 1954, in New London, Connecticut. He was her only child and Frances Perkins’s only grandchild. His name honored Calvert’s friend, painter Bradley Walker Tomlin.
Tomlin’s arrival briefly improved the relationship between Susanna and Frances. Their bond had been difficult, and by Perkins’s death on May 14, 1965, mother and daughter were largely estranged. Frances nevertheless remained important in her grandson’s life.
I would not smooth that history into a sentimental family portrait. Affection, duty, conflict, and financial responsibility can exist together. This family carried all of those elements, and the surviving outline does not give us every private conversation.
Calvert also had older children. John Coggeshall, Kate Hammatt, and Pleasance Factor were Susanna’s stepchildren and Tomlin’s half siblings. Keeping those relationships distinct matters because some compressed family accounts blur biological children and stepchildren.
The Older Generations and the Brick House
Susanna’s maternal grandparents were Frederick William Perkins and Susan Ella Bean Perkins. Frederick maintained the family’s connection to Newcastle, Maine, while building a life in Massachusetts. Susan and Frederick were also the parents of Frances’s sister, Ethel Cynthia Perkins.
Further back stood Edmund Perkins Jr and Cynthia Otis Perkins, Susanna’s great grandparents. The Brick House in Newcastle was built in 1837 as their wedding present. I see the house as an anchor in this family’s changing circumstances, holding several generations’ memories within the same walls.
Frances and Ethel inherited the homestead in 1927. Susanna spent her later years there. In 1995, Tomlin and his husband, Christopher Irvine Rice, moved into the family residence to help her manage as she grew older.
Susanna died at the Newcastle home on April 24, 2003, aged 86. Her service took place at St. Patrick’s Church on May 3. Her precise burial location is less securely established than those dates.
Remembering Frances Perkins Across Generations
On April 10, 1980, Susanna and Tomlin attended the ceremony naming the Department of Labor headquarters for Frances Perkins. The date would have been Perkins’s hundredth birthday. It placed daughter and grandson on a public stage associated with a legacy that had long shaped their private lives.
Susanna also gave oral history interviews about her mother between 1990 and 1992. I regard that participation as a meaningful contribution, even though no independently established occupation or major publication belongs to her public record.
Tomlin and Christopher later helped establish the Frances Perkins Center, incorporated in 2009. Tomlin attended the proclamation of the Frances Perkins National Monument on December 16, 2024. He died on January 7, 2025, aged 70, after seeing the family homestead receive that recognition.
FAQ
Who was Susanna Wilson Coggeshall?
She was the only surviving child of Frances Perkins and Paul Caldwell Wilson. She later married painter Calvert Coggeshall and became the mother of Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall.
When was Susanna born?
She was born in New York City on December 30, 1916. She died in Newcastle, Maine, on April 24, 2003.
Who was her first husband?
Her first husband was artist David Meredith Hare. They married on March 12, 1938, and divorced in 1945.
Did Susanna have children?
She had one child, Tomlin, with Calvert Coggeshall. She also had three stepchildren through Calvert’s earlier family.
Was Susanna an art historian?
That description has not been securely established. I would distinguish her connection to artists and family history from a verified professional title.
