Ruth Kutscher, who fled Nazi Germany and after settling in Baltimore later established a business selling modern furniture, accessories and gifts, died Friday of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. She was 91.

Ruth Lowenthal, the daughter of well known horse traders, was born and raised in Linnich, Germany, a suburb of Aachen, where she was also educated.

Mrs. Kutscher was able to leave Germany and Nazi persecution with the help of Myer Strauss, the Baltimore philanthropist and president of Strauss Brothers Dry Goods Inc. and the Standard Textile Co. Inc., who had acted as her sponsor.

Mr. Strauss was aided in his work of helping hundreds of Jews flee Germany by his wife, Julia Strauss, who was the daughter of Dr. Harry Friedenwald, a Baltimore ophthalmologist and noted Zionist.

The couple also sponsored Mrs. Kutscher's parents and brother, all of whom left their homeland in early 1941.

After arriving in Baltimore, Mrs. Kutscher was sent to Thurmont, where she worked as a delouser at Camp Louise, a Jewish girls camp.

"Her job was to go through the hair of incoming campers and look for lice," said a daughter, Ellen Uhlfelder of Pikesville. She later worked as a governess and seamstress until learning to become a manicurist.

"She was famous for riding her bicycle up and down Park Heights Avenue to the homes of such prominent ladies to manicure their nails. She worked for the Hutzler's, Kohn's, Hecht's and Hochschild's," her daughter said.

She met her future husband, Robert Kutscher, a native of Vienna, who also had been sponsored by the Strausses, at an open house they held in their Whitney Avenue home for those they had rescued.

"They married in 1941. In Austria, he had trained to be a lawyer but was forbidden by the Nazis to practice," Mrs. Uhlfelder said. "After coming to Baltimore, he worked as an usher at the Hippodrome. He hated that job and later worked in a body shop and as a traveling salesman."

The couple purchased a lot on Springdale Avenue and in the 1940s built a modern, airy ranch house in a neighborhood of stately colonials.

Mrs. Kutscher was anxious to furnish her new home with the new, stylish, modern furniture that began appearing in Europe and New York after the war. The new style later became the impetus for her life's work.

"She had a wonderful sense of style. She didn't like heavy houses or heavy furniture," her daughter said. "So, she began going to furniture shows in New York and began purchasing furniture directly from vendors which she then had shipped to Baltimore."

Her daughter said that friends "flocked to see her home and wanted to purchase the items she had purchased in New York."

Mrs. Kutscher converted a spare bedroom into a showroom, and with encouragement and support from both friends and vendors, went into business in 1950, when she and her husband established Modernook in a store at Park Heights and Belvedere Avenue, near Pimlico Race Track.

"It was the first modern furniture store in Baltimore and became a household name in the area for modern furniture, accessories and gifts," her daughter said.

Mrs. Kutscher's husband, who died in 1971, handled the interior-design side of the business, which also included installing designs in model homes.

In 1966, the business moved near the Reisterstown Road Plaza, and the next year, opened Gifts by Modernook next door to the Edmart Delicatessen, in the heart of Pikesville.

"The community remembers her commitment to her customers and her sunny smile, which was equal for both sales and returns," her daughter said. "Many of the pieces she sold are in the permanent collections of museums worldwide and are sought-after collector's items."

After selling the business in 1978, Mrs. Kutscher became a world traveler and became an active member of Elder Hostel.

In 1988, she was invited by the mayor of Aachen for a visit to the area where she had grown up and had not returned since departing for Baltimore in 1937.

"It helped her make peace with the German people," her daughter said.

Mrs. Kutscher, who had lived at 130 Slade Avenue Condominium for 30 years, was for the last four years a resident of the North Oaks retirement community in Pikesville. She also lived part of the year at a second home she maintained in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

She was also an avid bridge player and had become an oral historian for the Jewish Museum of Maryland, which also has her family recollections on file.

Mrs. Kutscher was a member of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.

"She had a remarkable life when you consider she arrived in Baltimore with nothing," her daughter said.

Services for Mrs. Kutscher were held Sunday.

Also surviving are another daughter, Karen Katz of Newtown, Pa.; a brother, Curtis Lowell Sr. of Mexico City; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.