The newlyweds moved to Southern California, settling in Hollywood, and Graf started playing under the name Sonja Graf-Stevenson. She retired from chess to give birth and raise her son Alexander, but subsequently returned to co-win (with Gisela Kahn Gresser) the 1957 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. She and her family moved to New York City's Greenwich Village, where she gave chess lessons at Lisa Lane's "Queen's Pawn Chess Emporium". In 1964 she had her second win in the U.S. Women's Championship, but was already suffering from the liver ailment which would take her life the following year. Sonja Graf died in New York City two-and-a-half months after her 56th birthday.