American Legion Post 107, 205 Lucky Street

#182 Sun Bonnet Sue

Quilter Susan Hagan

Sponsors The Legion’s members, with support from Past Commander Robert Hudgens and Commander Woody Sanders

The American Legion Post 107 members, with support from Past Commander Robert Hudgens and Commander Woody Sanders, chose the Sun Bonnet Sue pattern, quilted by Historian Zach Sharpe’s great-great grandma, Susan Hagan. This particular quilt was chosen from a cedar chest full of old family quilts handed down through Zach’s family and given to him by his mother, Karen Ruff Sharpe. The members felt that it was the most patriotic of all the choices due to its color scheme of red, white and blue.

The Sun Bonnet Sue pattern is a quilting icon. It originated in the 1880s and a book of her fictional life was published in the 1920s. People fell in love with Sue’s sweet nature and her ever-present bonnet. This may have been the impetus for our Sue quilt, as Susan Hogan of Leoma, Tennessee stitched her out of old scraps from family cast-offs during the ‘20s. In the early 1900s, Sun Bonnet Sue appeared in issues of the Ladies Home Journal and Woman’s World magazine, as well as in local newspapers and pattern books. Again, during the Great Depression, Sunbonnet Sue increased in popularity, as folks yearned for happier times.