Frédérique Anne Edelman (née Abramovich, Aubry) was born in Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, on October 24, 1926, to Abram (Abrasha) and Tselia Abramovich. Originally from Odessa, Abrasha and Tselia had fled to Turkey after the Bolsheviks expropriated their family home and business during the Russian Revolution. In Istanbul, Frédérique lived with her parents and beloved older brother Robert (Bob) in an apartment above Suriye Pasaji and attended one of the city’s French lycées. In 1930, the family moved to Paris, France in the wake of Turkish president Kemal Atatürk’s “Speak Turkish” campaign, which was intended to forcibly assimilate ethnic and religious minorities. Upon settling in France, the Abramovich family adopted the francized surname “Aubry.”

In Paris, the Aubrys joined Tselia’s sister Lucy and her family, who had emigrated from Russia to Austria and then France. The Aubry family lived on the Rue de Grenelle in the 7th Arrondissement near the Champs de Mars and Napoleon’s Tomb at the Invalides. Frédérique—affectionately called “Freddy” by her friends and family—attended boarding school in Megeve in the Alps in Southeastern France, where she became an avid skier. One of her classmates at school was the son of French Prime Minister Eduard Daladier—who along with Neville Chamberlain signed the ill-fated Munich Accords in 1938.

In 1940, after France fell to the Nazis, the Aubry family picked Freddy up in Megeve and fled across the Pyrenees to Spain. They briefly stayed in Madrid, where the gunfire from the executions after the recently concluded Civil War still echoed in the streets. Eventually the Aubrys made their way to Portugal, subsequently departing Europe for New York.

In New York, Freddy attended Julia Richman High School, where she was a contemporary of Lauren Bacall who also attended Jullia Richman high school a grade above her. She graduated in 1944 and matriculated to Cornell, where she met Milton Edelman, an enlistee in the U.S. Army who was being trained as a Russian language interpreter in the Army’s Specialized Training Program at Cornell and he was billeted in the Chi Phi fraternity house. Freddy and Milton shared a Russian language instructor.

After Milton’s deployment to the Korean Peninsula in 1945 as an analyst for the OSS, where he met the Russians to stop them at the 38th parallel. After the conclusion of the war, Milton and Freddy married in June 1946, living in Ithaca, New York, while Milton attended law school and Freddy finished her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in French and Russian literature, working with her advisors Morris Bishop and Vladimir Nabokov. Her Master’s thesis was a trail-blazing study, applying psychoanalyst Karen Horney’s feminist insights about sexuality to the works of Dostoevsky and Andre Gide. Freddy’s work was so daring that her MA Thesis was kept in a locked area of the Cornell Library for some years.

After Cornell, the Edlemans moved to Catonsville, Maryland, while Milton worked as an attorney for Nelson Rockefeller at the newly formed office of Health Education and Welfare(HEW). In 1951, Freddy and Milton welcomed their first child, Eric. In 1955, the family moved to New York City, where they lived on the Upper West Side. Milton worked first with Abrasha and Bob in a wrought iron furniture business, and then ultimately as the Vice President of the Danelectro electric guitar company, in New Jersey. Freddy freelanced as a copy-editor for Random House.

In 1962, the family moved to Fair Haven The Edelmans’ second son Marc was born in 1962. Freddy Taught French at Rumson-Haven Regional Highschool in the 60’s with the infamous Madame Vincense. In 1969, Freddy gave birth to daughter Alexa Edelman-Hurwitz of Friendswood Texas. Freddy and Milton purchased a home in Burlington, Vermont, while Milton continued to work as an attorney in New York. For many years Freddy taught French literature at New York University’s adult education program in Washington Square and maintained her interest in French and Russian literature over the years. In the year 2000 Freddy and Milton relocated to League City Texas, to be closer to family.

Freddy was an avid opera enthusiast and collector of art. She loved spending time with her children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Over the years, Freddy and Milton also enjoyed traveling to visit State Department family members living at post overseas in the Czech Republic, Finland, and Turkey—the latter allowing Freddy to visit the apartment building in Istanbul where she spent her first five years.

Freddy was predeceased by her husband Milton in 2014 and her grandson Alexander Davis Edelman in 2013. She is survived by her three children, Eric Edelman of Stafford, Virginia (Patricia Davis Edelman) Marc Edelman of League City, Texas (Luanne Fisi-Edelman), and Alexa Hurwitz (Scott Hurwitz), of Friendswood, Texas. She is also survived by her grandchildren Rachael Edelman, Stephanie Zarate, Terence Edelman, Robert Edelman, Samuel Edelman, Molly Edelman, and Caleb and Jacob Hurwitz, and her great-grandchildren Sage Edelman and Solomon and Lev Zarate.

Services Are at Crowder Funeral in League City Texas on October 14th at 10:00 A.M. and graveside Interment: will be at the Houston National Cemetery at 1:00 P.M. on the same day.