Did Cora Susan Collins have a husband and a kid? Family details explored as tributes pour in for actress' death at 98

Cora Susan Collins died on April 27, 2025, at the age of ninety-eight. She was among the last child stars from Hollywood's Golden Age to endure. Her revolutionary performances with Judy Garland, Bette Davis, and Greta Garbo have been honored by fans, historians, and other actresses. Collins had four husbands: theater owner Harry Nace, rancher Ivan Stauffer, resort owner James McKay (with whom she had three children), and artist Susie McKay Krieser, who is Collins's daughter.

​Family details of Cora Susan Collins explored as tributes pour in for actress' death at 98

Beckley, West Virginia, is the site of Cora Susan Collins's birth on April 19, 1927. At the age of four, Collins's mother uprooted her and her sister to California. Collins's ability for on-cue weeping would eventually drive her into a successful film career.
Her part as "Pudge" in Slim Summerville's 1932 comedy The Unexpected Father paid her $250 per week at a period when the average American household made just over $1,300 annually. Over the next thirteen years, she appeared in 47 films, usually as the younger versions of well-known actors as Claudette Colbert in Torch Singer (1933) and Greta Garbo in Queen Christina (1933).
When she was 17 years old, Collins married Nevada rancher Ivan Stauffer; they divorced in 1947. Though only one, Susie McKay Krieser, is known to the public, they had three kids together. James McKay, who owned the Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe, was her husband later in life.
She married James Morgan Cox in 1961 and later married theater owner Harry Nace in the late 1960s; Nace died in 2002 at the age of 87. Collins preferred isolation in her latter years, travelling to Phoenix under the name "Susie Nace" before returning to Beverly Hills.
According to Susie McKay Krieser, Collins's daughter, Collins passed away at her Beverly Hills residence from complications of a stroke on April 27, 2025, as reported. Also, according to reports, Krieser, an artist, manages to outlive her mother and even her great-grandchildren and grandkids.
By choosing to leave in 1945, Collins kept a body of work that stands as a tribute to early studio-system knowledge, hence preventing her from entering adult fame. Cinematographers still study her performances in Anna Karenina (1935) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), both based on novels, as well as her work for MGM, where she showed her acting prowess.
Cora Sue Collins moved from child star to devoted mother to respected senior stateswoman of vintage cinema. Her life was one of numerous successes. She maintained a fragile balance between public praise of her early talent and private time spent with her three children and four marriages.
As tributes have noted, her influence on Hollywood history is incalculable; her legacy endures in the hearts and minds of her admirers, the individuals she affected, and the ones she motivated. Her music will be cherished for years to come thanks to her grandsons, daughter Susie McKay Krieser, and millions of fans.

Divya Burman is a journalist at Primetimer 

She has completed her graduation in English Literature, which fuelled her interest in writing. A curious learner, Divya isn't scared to move out of her comfort zone and reviews her work from a critical point of view.

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