Fran Eizenstat always enjoyed her trips to Atlanta.
She’d made so many friends when she and her husband, Stuart E. Eizenstat, a former U.S. ambassador to the European Union, lived in the city in the late-’60s and ’70s.
“There was a group of us who got together for lunch every time she came into town,” said Susan Feinberg of Atlanta, a friend of 40 years. “And we didn’t get together to talk about cosmetics; Fran always directed us in conversations about worldly affairs.”
That group of friends got together last week when the Eizenstats were in Atlanta to support “Defiant Requiem,” a documentary that was part of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Before they left Friday, Fran Eizenstat had breakfast with a smaller group of friends, including Feinberg. That evening, after Eizenstat and her husband arrived in Miami, Fla., she had a stroke. Frances Carol Eizenstat, widely known as Fran, of Chevy Chase, Md., died Sunday from complications of the stroke. She was 68.
A funeral is planned for 2 p.m. Monday at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, Atlanta. Burial at Greenwood Cemetery will follow the service. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care is in charge of arrangements.
Eizenstat, a Boston native, came to Atlanta in the late ‘60s with her husband, who had worked as a speechwriter for President Lyndon Baines Johnson and on the 1968 presidential campaign of Hubert H. Humphrey. She remained in Atlanta until her husband went back to Washington to work for President Jimmy Carter.
While completing her undergraduate degree at Brandeis University, Eizenstat developed a “deep affection and ties” to the State of Israel. She spent a considerable amount of time working in Atlanta’s Jewish communities, including serving as vice president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women. She also earned two master’s degrees, one in social work from Boston College and another in business administration from George Washington University. She used those degrees in her work with the under-privileged and under-served in Atlanta and Washington, her husband said.
“She worked with the model cities program in Atlanta and the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington,” he said. “She also worked on an adult education program, the Institute of Atlanta Jewish Studies, which was part of the Bureau of Jewish Education.”
Eizenstat’s work with strangers was indicative of her interactions with friends, said Rita Bloom of Atlanta, a friend of four decades.
“Fran was warm and caring, and sincerely interested in the lives of her many friends,” Bloom said. “When I thought of her sitting next to whatever president or leader or whatever country, I knew she could sit and talk about any of the issues they wanted to talk about, and still exude her warmth,” Bloom said.
In addition to her husband, Eizenstat is survived by two sons, Jay Eizenstat of Silver Spring, Md., and Brian Eizenstat of New York; and seven grandchildren.
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