Sophia Himmelfarb Cohen, a homemaker and artist, died of congestive heart failure yesterday at Northwest Hospital Center's Heartland Hospice. The longtime Randallstown resident was 97.
Born Sophia Himmelfarb in Baltimore and reared on Pulaski Street, she attended city public schools. In 1932 she was married to Harry S. Cohen, a wholesale men's clothing salesman. Mr. Cohen died in 1996.
Throughout her life, Mrs. Cohen maintained an interest in the arts. She was a self-taught watercolorist and sculptor who had studied at Maryland Institute College of Art.
During the 1940s and 1950s, many of her watercolors were featured in juried exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art. For years, she was a theatrical set decorator at the Johns Hopkins University Children's Educational Theatre, which performed in the Merrick Barn theater on the university's Homewood campus.
Mrs. Cohen was a subscriber at the Mechanic and Lyric theaters, and regularly attended performances of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.
Before moving to Randallstown in 1971, she lived for many years on Copley Road in the city's Ashburton section.
She was an avid gardener and traveler.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Sol Levinson & Bros., 8900 Reisterstown Road.
Mrs. Cohen is survived by two daughters, Maxine C. Caplan of Randallstown and Helene Breazeale of Homeland; three grandsons, and seven great-grandchildren.
