Obituary: Harriet Isenberg
Harriet Isenberg was born in Atlanta on Oct. 25, 1948, to Seraphina Taylor and Jack Cohen, and died on Jan. 3, 2024.
Harriet Isenberg was born in Atlanta on Oct. 25, 1948, to Seraphina Taylor and Jack Cohen, and died on Jan. 3, 2024. She grew up on Canterbury Road in Buckhead, a house that was always open to and hosted friends and family members from around the world and widely referred to as the Canterbury Hilton. The Cohen family were active members of Ahavath Achim Synagogue.
Like all of the Cohen children she worked at Jack’s Pharmacy which later became Jack’s Apothecary, last located across the street from what was then Crawford Long Hospital. Harriet attended Rock Springs elementary school and graduated from North Fulton High School. She attended Cambridge College in Boston before obtaining a degree in business from Ft. Lauderdale University. She attended Atlanta Law School at night while working full-time and was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1985.
Harriet married Joel Isenberg in June 1970. She had two children, Ryan, born in 1974, and Lillie, born in 1978.
She worked as a teacher, banker, real estate broker, worked in the private security industry, lawyer, and was later General Counsel of Globe Security, then one of the world’s largest private security contractors. In 1989 she entered private practice with her second husband, Melvin L. Hewitt, Jr. For nearly 35 years she helped her business clients collect money owed to them as if it were her own. She was a long-time member of the Commercial Law League of America, and a charter member, and almost the forever chair of, the Creditor’s Rights Section of the State Bar of Georgia. During her tenure she worked tirelessly to establish laws favorable to her clients in both the courts of appeal and the legislature.
In her leisure time, Harriet cherished time with her family locally and would travel any distance to spend time with relatives across the United States and around the globe. She enjoyed attending theater performances, live music events, hosting and attending parties for family and friends, traveling the world, and had a remarkable zest for life which she was fortunate enough to maintain until the very end.
She is survived by her children, Lillie Biggs, Ryan Isenberg (Jennifer), William Hewitt (Laura), and Samantha Hyrcak (John), grandchildren, Jackson Isenberg, Iris Biggs, Karsen Isenberg, Parker Hewitt, Eleanor Hewitt, Sydney Lyons, Dean Coppage, and Mariah Coppage, and great-granddaughter Maliah Awosika.
She is also survived by her siblings Hedda Cohen Schwartz (Sheldon), Annette Cohen Pallowick (Bill), and Michael Cohen (Jayne Wallace), nieces and nephews, Allison, Amy, and Nicole Feinberg, Erik Pallowick (Shelly), and Geoff Cohen (Wendy), and stepmother Mary Cohen.
She was predeceased by her parents Seraphina Taylor Cohen and Jack Cohen and her childhood caregiver Rosalee Williams.
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