Frances Perkins, Social Security's forgotten shepherd (7min)

The Social Security program is one of President Franklin Roosevelt's most enduring legacies. On August 14 it will be 70 years since he signed the bill that brought Social Security to life. Standing right behind him that day was Frances Perkins, the secretary of labor and the first woman to hold a Cabinet-level post. She was more than just window dressing for the ceremony. Perkins was the driving force behind this landmark legislation.

Biographer Penny Colman says Perkins -- little-remembered today -- loomed large in the political struggle to make Social Security a reality.

Perkins led the working team that created the Social Security plan, and steered the bill through Washington's treacherous political waters.

She was born on April 10, 1880, in Boston, Mass. She was educated at Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University, earning degrees in 1902 and 1910. Her masters from Columbia was in sociology.

She spent her life fighting for social reform and workers' rights. After a number of positions in New York, including working for then-Gov. Roosevelt, she was appointed secretary of labor in 1933. Perkins served 12 years, longer than other secretary of labor.

She followed her Cabinet years with a stint on the United States Civil Service Commission. She resigned in 1952, after the death of her husband.

Frances Perkins died 13 years later, in 1965.