Elaine "Easy" Klein

Henry was an advertising man, and started the Henry Eisen Advertising agency, which is still in

existence, albeit in Chicago (the current version is unrelated to the original, but they thought it

was such a cool name that they used it.) Millie was an elementary school teacher at a public

school on the East Side of Manhattan. Easy lived with her parents and older sister, Marion at

470 West End Avenue, between 82nd and 83rd Street. Easy was a hard core Upper West

Sider! According to Easy, her sister was responsible for the nickname “Easy” because she

couldn’t say “Elaine”. Other accounts tell the story that Easy was given the choice between

“Easy” and “Shrimp”, so she picked “Easy”.

Easy attended the Julia Richmond school for girls and according to her and her friends, she was

“wicked smart”, and aced all of her schoolwork despite the fact that she couldn’t see very well.

Easy wanted to attend the University of Wisconsin, but her parents claimed that they didn’t

have enough money to send her there, so she attended Brooklyn College. According to family

legend, upon her graduation Hank and Millie gave Easy a mink coat, which she threw back in

her parents’ faces because they could have used the money they spent on the coat to send her

to the college she wanted to attend!

Easy worked as a journalist at the Newark News, where she met a very cool cat named Robert

Klein. Love ensued, they were married and had 3 children - Woody, Bill and Amy, all named

after their shared favorite writers. As a young mother living in Scarsdale with 3 small kids, Easy

continued to write and worked as a stringer for the New York Times. Over the years, she held a

variety of jobs in journalism producing, among many things, educational material similar to what

has become popularized as “So you’re a bill sittin’ on Capital Hill.” Easy worked at NYU in their

communications department, and was no doubt a trusted and wise advisor to Bob as a journalist

and as a financial advisor.

Easy also experienced sadness and trauma during her adult life. In the late 70s, both Bill and

Amy became ill with mental illnesses which they have lived with and struggled with all of their

adult lives. Easy became a fierce advocate for both Bill’s and Amy’s well being, and worked to

better understand their illnesses and help them live fruitful lives in the community. Her oldest

son, Woody, died in a freak traffic accident on the 2nd day of 1984. And then Bob, the love of

her life, died in 1993 at the young age of 66, after a brief struggle with cancer. Despite these

difficult and traumatic sorrows, Easy never failed to push forward, to live with purpose, passion,

joy and humor.

After her retirement, Easy hosted a local television program, “Mental Health Update” for the

New York City Metro chapter of NAMI, with the purpose of helping to destigmatize and spread

knowledge about mental illness. She couldn’t help but pour her energy into this cause that

affects so many people but is too infrequently spoken of honestly and directly.

Along the way, Easy gathered friends and admirers with her outspokenness, her empathy, her

intelligence and her humor. Her friends were young and old, and she enjoyed talking with all

comers. Easy was a real Francophile and traveled to France and to other exotic locations -

many of the people here received her annual postcards that showed her posing with new friends

and local attractions. Well into her 90s, she enjoyed speaking French and eating “moules” with

great gusto.

Easy was a full human - giving more than she took, and thrilling everyone in the dance that was

her life. She will be remembered and missed by all who knew her.