Harriet Feinberg
Harriet Lousie Feinberg was born June 10, 1941, to Ted and Eva Beckman Allen in the Woodcrest section of the Bronx. She died Aug. 19 in her home in Mount Kisco.
Her brother, Bruce, was born Feb. 16, 1943, and died in July 2022. Both parents were the children of immigrants from Minsk, but the Beckmans settled in New Haven, Conn. where Eva grew up while Ted was born on the Lower East Side of New York.
In 1943, the family moved to New Rochelle and Ted started auto accessory stores nearby. Harriet had exceptional visual and artistic capabilities. As a teenager she studied at the Art Students League in New York. She developed her personal artistic abilities and her knowledge of art and artists to an amazing degree.
At the age of 16 she met her future husband, Ed, and the two were virtually inseparable for the next 67 years. Their abilities and personalities were completely opposite, but they bonded like the two poles of a magnet. Ed was a first-year pre-veterinary student at Cornell when they met. So when she was accepted at the fine arts colleges at Syracuse University and Boston University, she enrolled at Syracuse, an hour from Cornell. She majored in interior design.
They married in 1961 when Ed was still a veterinary student. Their first child, Mark, was born the next year in Ithaca. Although she gave up her plan to be an interior designer, she continued to paint throughout her life. Despite the talent she exhibited in her paintings, she was extremely modest and rarely hung or showed her works. During the last few years,her husband took it on himself to hang some of her art throughout the home, surprising many who saw it..
In 1963 they moved to Middletown where Ed had a job with a primate importer. A few months later they moved to Westchester County where he worked for a couple of veterinary practices while waiting for his commission in the U.S. Air Force. Wherever he went,in civilian life or the military, she dutifully accompanied him, never complaining about the circumstances.
While he was in the Air Force they ended up in Dayton, Ohio where Ed was involved in research for the Apollo and Manned Orbiting Laboratory missions. Their second child, Lee, was born at the base hospital.
After the military service, the family moved to Bedford Hills and lived over the animal hospital they had built. For at least the next five years money was very tight but Harriet never complained..Then they bought a lot and managed to get a loan to build a house, which they partially finished themselves. Many things were left undone until finances improved. In 1971, they moved into their new home and never left it.
People who met Harriet often remarked how nice she was. Though shy and quiet, she had a way of talking to people about them and not herself..She was a devoted mother and grandmother. She focused on her four children, their spouses and her grandchildren.
Mark has daughters Talia and Shira and son,Noam. Lee is married to Shari Waldbaum Feinberg and has two children, Evan and Amanda. Roanne is married to Alan Antin and has two boys, Benjamin and Mitchell, and Karen is married to Mark Allison and has a son, Eli, and daughter Madeline.
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