Suzanne Sagendorph Welsh

Suzanne Sagendorph Welsh (1917-1987) was an American entrepreneur, antique dealer and furniture decorator.
Early life and education
Suzanne S. Welsh was born and raised in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania and was the third child of Frank E. Sagendorph, 2nd and Elizabeth Hagy. Her father was president of the Penn Metal Corporation of Pennsylvania, which her grandfather L. Lewis Sagendorph founded. On her maternal side she was descended from a long line of prominent Philadelphian's, including the industrial and political families of Ashmead, Mifflin, Rush, Croskey, and Hagy.
She graduated in June 1936 from the Mary Lyon School in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, a small independent school for young women. After graduation she attended the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, majoring in piano and voice.
Health issues: rickets and celiac
As a young child she was diagnosed with Rickets and was unable to walk until she was five years old. Initially this stunted her growth but as she approached her teen years, she grew to a normal height.
In addition to Rickets, as a youngster she also suffered with a chronic digestive issue. Her mother took her to numerous pediatric specialists in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. However, it was Dr. John Howland at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore who finally diagnosed her illness as Celiac disease, which affects the processing of gluten by the pancreas. It was not until 1950 when doctors at the University of Pennsylvania, where her father’s brother George A. Sagendorph was on the board of trustees, experimented with the new miracle drug cortisone, that she finally found significant relief from Celiac. In later years her doctors switched her to prednisone, which she continued to use for the rest of her life. This treatment is not used today as much more is known about the causes and treatments for Celiac disease and also its relation to Rickets.
Marriage and family
In March 1940, Suzanne Sagendorph married James Conwell Welsh, a Philadelphia attorney (second son of Republican Congressman and Federal Judge George Austin Welsh and Nellie Ross Wolf). Because of her chronic health problems, doctors were wary of her ability to have children. However, she found that pregnancy was not an issue and her health actually improved during those months. Suzanne and Conwell started their lives in Lansdowne—raising four children: Gwendolyn, David C., Janet S., and Frank S. Welsh. In 1950, the family moved from Lansdowne to Ardmore to a 20+ room historic house traditionally known as "Castle Beith" built in 1699 by Welsh Quakers, Morris and Ann Llewelyn. The move sparked her interest in collecting antiques to furnish her new home. She joined the Haverford Township Historical Society and often opened her house for local heritage tours.
Music
Suzanne maintained her interest in music in the 1950s and composed a song with lyrics titled: “I’ve Got a Secret” and had it copyrighted in April 1957 (Copyright # EU-472300).
Antiques and Suzy’s Corner
Suzanne S. Welsh and her husband, Conwell, divorced in June 1958, making her a single mother of four young children. Rather than move from “Castle Beith”, she persevered - determined to make it on her own. She started by using her musical talent to teach piano in her home. Realizing she needed additional income she rented out several rooms in the house. At the same time Suzanne started buying, repairing, refinishing and reselling Pennsylvania country antique furniture. She called her new antique business Suzy’s Corner, a name she initially used when exhibiting flowers at the Twentieth Century Club in Lansdowne, because her booth at their shows was in the front corner of the ballroom.
Furniture decoration
Through her antique business Suzanne S. Welsh developed a love for the Pennsylvania Dutch country. She purchased many pieces at country auctions and from other antique dealers in Lancaster and Berks County, and most often from well-known artist and antique dealer Hattie Klapp Bruner whose home and shop were in Rhineholds, Pennsylvania. Many of the pieces she purchased had semblances of original painted decoration that inspired her strong artistic nature to study and learn antique furniture decoration.
She learned how to cut and make stencils, research historic paint patterns and to paint with oils, do free hand bronzing, and gold leafing. She became very accomplished at the art and started to paint and decorate 19th century furniture mostly from Pennsylvania, but also from Maryland and New England such as: chairs, rockers, settees, blanket chests, stools and toleware with authentic designs of the period of the piece. The Sun Porch of her Ardmore home became her studio, while the old garage served as her furniture repair and paint shop.
SWS monogram signature
Over a more than 20-year period Suzanne S. Welsh decorated hundreds of pieces of antique furniture, both for clients and for selling at antique shows in and around the Philadelphia area. She gained a wide and respected reputation as an accomplished artist for her work.
Roger W. Moss, Jr., former executive director of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia and well-known author of numerous books on painted Victorian exterior decoration, who purchased a settee decorated by Welsh recalls:
"I first met Suzanne Welsh in the 1960s when my then wife acquired one of her decorated settees. She was very fond of her work and subsequently we sought her out in Ardmore to see and occasionally acquire other examples."
Suzanne typically signed her pieces of decorated furniture on the bottom of the seats with her initials/monogram: SWS, usually enframed in a diamond, and/or also affixed her name/address label: Suzanne S. Welsh, 530 Ardmore Ave., Ardmore, PA.
She started her furniture decorating business in the early 1960s but, lamentably because of the deleterious effects of the paint solvents, especially carbon tetrachloride that she used to clean her stencils, she had to stop after an extraordinary 20 plus year career as an artist/entrepreneur.
Nevertheless, after ending her painting career she embarked on a new one—the study and collection of political memorabilia and eventually took a booth at the Ardmart, an antique market in Ardmore that was founded by David Groverman. Once again she continued her new business in a corner booth under the name of “Suzy’s Corner”, and become a well-known and respected dealer—buying and selling political buttons, ribbons, jewelry and other types of memorabilia, especially those related to presidential campaigns.
Personal
Suzanne Sagendorph Welsh was a multi-talented, adventurous, and creative entrepreneur and artist who encountered many obstacles as a woman at a time when men ruled the business world and gained acclaim for there efforts, leaving women's efforts and struggles unrecognized or not notable. Suzanne S. Welsh was also a lifelong golfer and member of the Merion Golf Club, a Republican and Episcopalian. She died at the age of 70 at her home in Ardmore and was buried at Arlington Cemetery in Upper Darby, Delaware County, with her parents.

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