Perkins (Frances) is born in the South End.

The daughter of Frederick and Susan (Bean) Perkins, Frances Perkins is born at 12 Worcester Square, grows up in Worcester, and graduates from Mount Holyoke College. She becomes a social worker in Chicago and Philadelphia, becomes a New York City consumer and labor official. Perkins marries Paul Wilson in 1913, and subsequently lives for many years with Mary Harriman Rumsey. The first woman cabinet secretary in history, she serves as U.S. Secretary Labor (1933-45), and comes to be known as “The Woman behind the New Deal.” Perkins dies in New York City on May 14, 1965, and is buried in Glidden Cemetery in Newcastle, Maine.