Fran Friedman, advocate for music and women's rights, dies at 95

Fran Friedman, a longtime Hewlett Bay Park resident and advocate for music and women’s rights, died on Sept. 10 after a battling Alzheimer’s.

She celebrated her 95th birthday on Aug. 29.

Fran was born and raised in the Bronx where she lived with her parents Jack and Sally Ellstein and sisters Rhoda and Gloria, who all predeceased her.

She graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx at 15 years old. Fran earned a bachelor’s degree at Queen’s College, then a master’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from Adelphi University. She also attended McGill University in Montreal.

Fran pursued a professional singing career and later became a speech therapist for the deaf at the Caritas School in Rockville Centre.

She was a part of the juried art show at Five Towns Music and Arts Foundation, and sang at charity events and children’s hospitals on Long Island and in Nyack. Fran was also an advocate for women’s rights.

Fran lived in Hewlett Bay Park with her husband, Sheldon Friedman for over 20 years. The two moved to Manhattan and Nyack, then to the Friedwald Center in the city in 2021, when they needed increased care.

Fran was a travel bug, and visited many places in the states, as well as Canada, Europe, Israel and Mexico. She also loved art, music and dance, her son David Friedman said.

“She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother with a wonderful sense of humor,” David said.

Fran’s daughter Joan Harris and husband Sheldon predecease her.

She is survived by her son, David, granddaughters Samantha Harris, Alexandra Walker and her husband Ben and great-grandchildren Braylen, Kai and Jaxis Walker, along with her nieces and nephew and their children.

“We have wonderful memories of Granny Frannie and miss her smiling face,” Harris and Walker wrote in an email.

A funeral was held at Boulevard-Riverside Chapels in Hewlett on Sept. 13. Rabbi Galina Makaveyev of Temple Israel in Lawrence led the service.

Makaveyev sang Fran and Sheldon’s wedding song, “Our love is here to stay.”.

“Mom was a caring, brilliant, funny, talented woman, who welcomed everyone she met,” David said. “She was the matriarch of our family, and inspired us all to be better people. We miss her terribly and are consoled by the many wonderful memories of time we spent with her.”