SOPHIE 'BOBBI' LIPSON, 97, LONGTIME HOME DECORATOR.

Byline: Daily News

Sophie "Bobbi" Lipson, who as a rebellious flapper in the 1920s shocked London by wearing white slacks when playing tennis, died Wednesday night of natural causes in a residential care home in Santa Clarita. She was 97.

She follows her husband, Jack Lipson, also 97, who died in the same bed five days previously. They were married 76 years.

Born in London on Dec. 26, 1909, she graduated from secretarial school in 1924 and began working in the advertising department of Allines Ltd., a British marketing and promotional firm.

In later years, after the Lipsons immigrated to the United States in 1948 on the Queen Mary with their two children, she was a home decorator at Carl's Paint and Wallpaper, which she co-owned with her husband.

Always ready to dance, she and Jack, who first became acquainted at age 11 at school, met again at a tennis club at age 17 and started dancing together, attending such famous London dance venues as the Astoria and Peoples Palais.

They were engaged at 19 and married at 21.

In 1945, they purchased a property in Selsey, Sussex, a small seaside resort, where they ran a private hotel until 1948.

She leaves two children, Valerie Cravitz of Santa Clarita and Larry Lipson, the Daily News restaurant critic; two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

A service with be held today at noon at Mount Sinai Mortuary in Los Angeles.