SARATOGA SPRINGS — Edna Heyman, 89, of 44 Pepper Lane in Saratoga Springs, died peacefully surrounded by her son, daughter in-law and granddaughter on December 23at her home.
Born on August 19, 1924, in the Bronx, she was the daughter of the late Harry Rosenberg and Fanny Kaufman Rosenberg. She had one brother, Jack Rosenberg, who predeceased her, and is survived by Jack’s daughter, Diane Sporn, and her two children.
A graduate of Evander Childs in the Bronx, and a model and aspiring actress, Edna performed on radio in New York, including the well-received Davey Crockett Show, playing Davey’s wife. Sublimating an inner passion to be a working woman and see the world, and following a short-lived first marriage to a family-arranged Harvard professor, she reconnected shortly after World War II with her first love, Herbert Heyman, had one child, Steven, and moved to the Long Island suburbs.
However, Edna refused to allow marriage or motherhood to extinguish her passion for people, travel, and the full life experience. Often referring to Brenda Starr as her role model, Edna went on to write extensively for several newspapers, becoming an editor and a columnist. She was also the head counselor of The Girls’ Camp at Camp High Point for several years, where she had met Herb before the war, and chaperoned teen tours to Europe. She and Herb also spent many winters on the Costa del Sol in Southern Spain where she developed many international relationships that she sustained throughout her life.
In her leisure, Edna especially enjoyed bridge, concerts and theater, entertaining, and time with her small family.
Herbert Heyman, her husband of 55 years, died in 2003.
She is survived by her son, Steven, and his wife, Joy Heyman, of Saratoga Springs, and her granddaughter, Nicole Faye Heyman, who currently resides in Brooklyn and works for PBS/POV.
For all of her travels and adventures, she will be best remembered for her ability to listen and render opinions without judging, as well as for her honesty, open-mindedness, storytelling, and wisdom. She was born a people-person and all who met her were the richer for it.
Special thanks to Community Hospice of Saratoga, as well as her nurses, Colleen and Kim.
