Susan Mary Alsop (née Jay; June 19, 1918 – August 18, 2004) was an American writer and socialite active in Washington, D.C., political circles.

"[1][2] Alsop was born Susan Mary Jay in Rome on June 19, 1918, to Susan Alexander McCook and U.S. diplomat Peter Augustus Jay, who served as U.S. General Consul to Egypt, U.S. Minister to El Salvador and Romania and U.S.

[8] In 1939, she married the diplomat William Samuel "Bill" Patten, and in 1945 helped him get a job with the American embassy in Paris.

[13] She was posthumously biographed by her son in his 2008 memoir My Three Fathers: And the Elegant Deceptions of My Mother, Susan Mary Alsop,[12] and later by French former diplomat Caroline de Margerie in American Lady: The Life of Susan Mary Alsop (2012).

[15][16] Also in 2012 she was fictionalized in David Auburn's Broadway play The Columnist, based on Joseph Alsop's life, and portrayed by actress Margaret Colin.