Susan Knowles Sims Coffin

1906 - 1987

The Sims family home at 6444 Greenwood Ave on Chicago’s southside, welcomed its fourth child, Susan Knowles Sims on Sept 21, 1906. By the time Sue was 4, the family had upsized to a large house on Kenwood with much more space for this active family of, now, five children. She was a bright and active child who attended many parties with her siblings at the nearby South Shore Country Club and, in 1918, with the help of her brother Frank and dear friend Madeline Masters down the street, organized a bazaar to aid the War effort.

She spent a year at the University of Chicago on the southside of Chicago and later attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts. It is unclear if she met her future husband, Richard Guild Coffin (the son of a congressman from Detroit) when he visited the Ranch in the early 20’s as a guest of Frank Sims (they were both Class of 1924 at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania) or if they met some years later when she was at Wellesley, he at Brown University. She announced her engagement April 22, 1927 at a tea for 15 of her friends; taking a page from the 1921 Hyde Park Highschool Yearbook in which Sue is described as “kittenish”. She had a bag in front of each friend emblazoned with “let the cat out of the bag” and containing a card with Sue and Dick’s names. The couple was married that June at the family’s new home at 112 Bellevue Place on the northside of Chicago; the maid of honor was Susan’s childhood chum, Madeline Masters.

Sue and Dick’s early married life was peripatetic and the young couple lived in five different Michigan cities over the next 10 years while Dick pursued his career. Their first daughter Ginny was born in Grand Rapids in 1928, Charlotte (Chuckie) in Pontiac in 1932 and Gale in Detroit in 1936. War time brought a rise in their fortunes and Socony moved them to New York. Here the youngest daughter Lyn was born in 1943.

Susan was tall, thin and elegant. Reading was a passion and she became one of the oldest students to attend Columbia University. She was wise and provided her four daughters wit and wisdom to serve them through the years.

She spent every summer at the house she and Dick built at the Ranch. It was often remarked upon that the Coffin Cottage was the furthest from the Ranch House and furthest from EW and Charlotte Sims. One theory holds that this was her husband Dick’s preferred location, as far as he could be from his in-laws, another that Susan was canny enough to know that this site had the deepest property depth to the road. It was here that Sue and her brood of girls spent every summer. With time, and additional family created by marriage of her four daughters and the coming of grandchildren, Sue and Dick found that sharing the cottage with young grandchildren required expansion and built a two-bedroom house next door. As years passed, the “new cottage” too became filled with grandchildren and a third summer house, the Annex, was built… with no room for company.

With Dick’s retirement from Socony, the couple retired from Manhattan to Arizona, summering at their house at the Ranch. Sue continued to read voraciously. An evening cocktail, a seat on the chaise longe, a book at the ready and Sue was pleased to while away the hours.

Sue’s youngest Her daughter Lyn provided some of her favorite memories of her mother:

My clearest memory of her is my crouching by the bookstore, trying to find a book for her. She crouched down beside me, both of us more or less wedged between a big over-stuffed chair and the bookcase. I said something that struck her as funny and she laughed so hard, she fell back on her fanny and still kept laughing. I had never seen her laugh so hard, or look so inelegant.
Mom was very smart about cigarettes. She smoked a lot herself- mostly Camels, which was the "rough" brand. When I got to the age, she was ready. I came home one afternoon from hanging out with my friends. One of them (for the first time) had offered me a cigarette. I was tempted but said no. Then felt I had made a mistake. I silently vowed to myself to smoke the next time. I was no sooner in the door than Mom accosted me. "Well, you're about the age when people will be offering you cigarettes," she said. "Why don't you try one of mine." I was astonished. I accepted her offer and took a couple of puffs. The taste and the overall effect were sickening. Horrible. I said so. 

"Well," she said, "if you ever want to take it up, come to me first. Don't go sneaking around about it." The charm of smoking was entirely gone and the acrid taste was still in my mouth.

She was smart about other things. I was headed for a sleepover in the fifth or sixth grade. I said I want to wear lipstick. She said, "Give me a good reason and I'll let you." "Everybody's doing it," I said. "That's the worst reason I've ever heard," she responded. That was it for lipstick for quite a while.

Mom didn't like cooking much, but she cooked a lot. She taught us two family acronyms for use when there were guests present- "MIK" meant more in kitchen- have all you want. "FHB" meant "Family Hold Back." So she'd come out with pork chops or something and when the guests asked what the dish was, she'd say, "These are pork chops FHB" (or MIK). Speaking of pork chops, I remember Mom's telling the story that when she and Dad were first married and he was working for White Star and not making much money at all, she would always serve his parents (His dad was a congressman and rather well-to-do) pork chops, because that was the only meat she could afford. The first time they got invited to his parents' house, she was very excited to have a real meal-- Only to find Dad's mother serving them pork chops. "I know Sue just loves pork chops," his mother said, "Because every time we come over, that's what she serves."