OBITUARIES : Sonia Garutso, 94; One-Time Russian Countess, Patron to Emigres in L.A.

Sonia Garutso, a one-time Russian countess who served as a Red Cross doctor in World War I and became a patron to Russian emigres in Los Angeles, has died at 94.

She died of a heart attack Thursday in Palm Springs, where she had gone the week before.

Mrs. Garutso, whose first husband was a Russian count and imperial army officer, was also the widow of Stephen E. Garutso, an optical inventor whose patented lenses were used in the photography of such films as “Cyrano de Bergerac.” Her only child died of hunger shortly after birth during the civil war that followed the Russian revolution.

Award for Bravery

A medical graduate of Vladimir University in Kiev, Mrs. Garutso practiced on the German front, where she was wounded and earned the St. George Cross for bravery before the collapse of czarism.

The woman, who once said she had lived “five or six lifetimes--more than a cat”--came to the United States in 1925 from Turkey,signing on as doctor on a refugee ship destined for New York. She eventually retrained as a dentist, practicing in Hollywood for several decades.

She served as technical adviser on several historical films.

Patron to Young Russians

In later years, Mrs. Garutso became a patron to talented young Russians who had left the Soviet Union, obtaining scholarships for promising artists and musicians and raising money for a retirement home and nursing facility for elderly Russians.

Mrs. Garutso, a longtime member of the Soroptimist women’s service group, in 1972 published a book called “Zoya,” an anti-Communist novel about a Russian immigrant like herself.

As she explained, “Every Russian from a prince to a commoner has a story to tell.”

Memorial services are scheduled at 7 p.m. today at the Russian Orthodox Church, 650 Micheltorena St., Los Angeles. A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at the same church.