Dechevaux-Dumesnil, Suzanne Georgette Anna, 1900-1989

Suzanne Georgette Anna Déchevaux-Dumesnil was born on January 17, 1900 in Argenteuil, France. Déchevaux-Dumesnil was known for avant-garde tastes and left-wing politics. She worked as a pianist during the 1930s. Sometime in the late 1930s, Déchevaux-Dumesnil became the lover of the poet Samuel Beckett. During the Second World War, Déchevaux-Dumesnil and Beckett joined the French Resistance. For over two years, they hid from the Germans in the village of Roussillon, in the South of France.

Déchevaux-Dumesnil married Beckett in March 1961 in Folkestone. In part, the marriage was intended to ensure that, if Beckett died before her, Déchevaux-Dumesnil would inherit the rights to his work because there was no common-law marriage in France. Déchevaux-Dumesnil died at age 89, on July 17, 1989 in Paris.