AFINSOFF, ALEXANDER

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Monday, July 19, 2010 at 07:18:44 :

Independent Journal
Wednesday, November 25, 1953
Page 7

TV Star’s Wife Hangs Herself In Mill Valley

Mrs. Dorthea Alexander Afinsoff, wife of prominent night club and television singer George Alexander, committed suicide this morning at their home, 156 Lovell avenue, Mill Valley.

The 30-year-old mother of two children had been despondent over ill health, the Coroner’s office reported, following consultation with her doctor recently.

Mrs. Afinsoff had locked herself in the bedroom closet and hanged herself with a rope attached to an electric light connection. Both her wrists were slashed and an empty four-ounce bottle of liquid ant poison was found near her body also.

She was discovered by her nine-year-old daughter Christine who came into the bedroom to look for her mother, found the closet door locked and inserted a ruler under the door. When she found blood on the ruler, she ran to a neighbor who called the fire department for help.

A younger daughter, Sandra, 7, was in school at the time. A third child had died at birth last March.

Alexander and his brother Nick, who are known as the Alexander Brothers in the entertainment world, are in Pittsburgh, Penn., on a singing engagement. They were notified this morning of the tragedy.

Funeral arrangements are pending at the Russell and Gooch Mortuary.