Searched for awhile on this one , with no definitive hold-up-in-court results .
Similar painting effects (used by many artists) between yours & the only other representative work (by Louis Cheskin) I could find .
One small exception (possibly) is U.S. Patent # 2,760,302 , a toy patent granted to Louis Cheskin which was filed for on Oct.26,1953 (from Chicago,Ill) .
Within the patent , it's stated that 'I illustrated' - although that's common verbage in patents ....
I'd go along with D&b about Cheskin (the artist , not the administrator) and the WPA link ; was also associated with the 'Illinois Art Project' around the same time .
One sig (watercolor) cursive , the other not (mostly) .
This does not give creedance that the sigs either do , or do not match ; one sig done with a brush , the other in ink (or pencil - I could not find out which , so far) .
Yours could be an earlier work from the same semi-obscure artst .
Perhaps contacting folks in Illinois might hunt up another example of his sig , which I was unable to positively identify .
I think it would be worth trying , so you'd know what you do (or do not) have !