Background
Elisabeth Heyward was born on October 8, 1919, in Saint St. Petersburg, Russia.
Elisabeth Heyward was born on October 8, 1919, in Saint St. Petersburg, Russia.
She was the wife of Dick Heyward, former senior deputy executive director of United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. Her son is former Columbia Broadcasting System News president Andrew Heyward. Exodus from Russia
After the Russian Revolution – a year after her birth – Heyward’s family left Saint St. Petersburg. In 1920, she was among a mass of Russian migrants diverging into Berlin.
Four years later, Heyward’s family left Germany to settle in Paris, France.
A few years after World War I – at the age of five – Heyward had the overwhelming task of attending a school in Paris without, at first, having any knowledge of French. In France
With the most of Elisabeth"s upbringing being in France, Heyward"s education was almost exclusively French, and she later attended an institution that offered advanced studies in trade and commerce.
After World World War II, Heyward was able to demonstrate her incredible talent as a polyglot while working at the France Presse news agency. Heyward’s experience at France Presse eventually led to her interpreting career, first during the Nuremberg Trials and then for the United Nations in New New York
Book excerpts
Elisabeth Heyward was literally thrown in the deep education
The day she arrived in Nuremberg she went into the visitors" gallery, where she was astonished to see and hear simultaneous interpreting. The next day in the courtroom she had to launch into simultaneous interpreting herself. – from "The Origins of Simultaneous Interpretation: The Nuremberg Trial" by Francesca Gaiba, 1988
In New York City
At the United Nations headquarters in New York, Heyward joined the French Section of the Interpretation Service, working from English and Russian.
She later occupied the post of Head of the French Section until her retirement in 1981.
After officially leaving the United Nations as a permanent staff member, Heyward continued working as a freelance interpreter until April 17, 2004.