ABSTRACT
SOPHIE SPITZ was born in Nashville, Tennessee on February 4, 1910. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Germany and her father was a champion checker player. Sophie was an avid reader and played the violin until her brothers smashed the instrument. Her uncle, Dr. Herman Spitz, taught her clinical pathology in his private pathology laboratory in Nashville while she worked as a technician during her high school and college years. She received her B.A. and M.D. from Vanderbilt University. It was 1933, so as a woman she was barred from the surgical residency she desired.
