Obituary
Edith Erika Fleischman Downs, ‘Edie’ as she was known to all, 94, of Palm Coast passed away peacefully on April 23, 2018 at the Stewart Meyers hospice facility in Palm Coast. Edie, an avid tennis player at the Palm Coast Tennis Center also loved dancing at the Elks Club and other venues and socializing with her many friends. As a young girl in Leipzig, she was an accomplished gymnast who was slated for the 1936 Olympic team but was removed from competition because of her religion.
She was sent into hiding by her parents in 1939 and went into the forest always hiding from the Nazi patrols. She made her way, sometimes with the groups, to churches and other underground sympathizers through Belgium and France where she was then taken in by a French family as a housekeeper and nanny. After the war she received her French citizenship where she lived a happy life in Paris. In 1957 she made her way to New York then Miami where she became a successful dress designer, met her husband Bud, and started winning tennis trophies. Retirement brought them to New Smyrna Beach then Palm Coast.
Edie was predeceased by her husband Burdette Downs, her brother Jacob three sisters, Rossa, Fannie and Mary.
Her parents and sister Mary died in Auschwitz. Her brother Jacob and sister Rossa had already moved to Israel before the war and sister Fanni had moved to the south of France.
She is survived by her Great niece and Great nephew, Tamar Zaitman of TelAviv and David Millet of New Jersey.
A celebration of her life will be forthcoming.
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