Sophie G. Shaver

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Woman Artist Dies of Shock
Sophie Gurvitch Shaver

Mrs. Sophie G. Shaver,
artist died from electric shock
in her apartment at 3009 Holcomb
avenue Tuesday night when she
grasped an electric heater while bathing.

An electric heater grasped in one hand, Mrs. Sophie Gurvitch Shaver, one of Detroit's best known young artists, was found dead in a half-filled tub in her apartment at 3009 Holcomb avenue, Tuesday evening.

Detectives Lawrence Sheehy, of the homicide squad, and Albert Kean, acting deputy coroner, said the young woman apparently lifted the electric heater with damp hands while standing in the water to take a bath and was killed by the current passing through her body.

The body was found by Horace Cross, 4837 Wayburn avenue, and Fred Litser, 2206 Alter road, who had come to keep an appointment concerning some commercial art work the artist had done for them and who investigated when found the lights on but received no response to their calls.

Husband, baby ill.

Illness had brought misfortune to Mrs. Shaver's family in recent years. Her husband, Richard Shaver, also an artist, was stricken with sunstroke three years ago, and never fully recovered. Her only child, Evelyn Ann, 2 years old, is in Herman Kiefer Hospital with scarlet fever. Mrs. Shaver's death as not immediately made known to her husband, arrangements being left in the hands of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Gurvitch, and her sisters, Evelyn and Rose, all of 8715 Forest avenue east.

Figures in composition, still life and floral pieces, in a technique which she had developed with a great deal of skill, in line and water color, made Mrs. Shaver's work a success in Detroit prior to 1933, when she held a farewell exhibition at the Phoenix Club before leaving for illustration endeavors in New York City.

Her work was the result of many years of hard labor and thorough training. Born in Kiev, Russia, 35 years ago, she came to Detroit as a child, and learned the rudiments of art in the Detroit schools. She then studied at the Wicker School of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute and the Art Students' League of New York.

Following her studies she joined an advertising group in Detroit, and contributed to the annual Michigan Artists' shows, the Detroit Society of Independent Artists and exhibition by Jewish artists in Detroit, covering subjects with equal ease in oil, water color and pen and ink.