Martina Phyllis Bedar (Myrna Phyllis Heller) was born on October 11, 1945, and died on October 10, 2025. She was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, teacher, counselor, and friend. She passed away peacefully, holding the hand of her husband, on the day before her 80th birthday.
Martina possessed a warm smile, a quick laugh, and an eager helping hand. She was an excellent listener, who cared genuinely and could offer understanding support and guidance. She was passionate about her work as a counselor and teacher, her family, providing opportunities for others, and supporting groups which served people in need and the protection of animals.
Martina was born in the Bronx, New York, to Julius and Freida Heller (née Tau), as the younger of two girls. She graduated from Hunter College with a graduate degree, and became a bilingual high school teacher and counselor in Manhattan, as well as a newspaper photographer and a sales representative for educational publications.
Martina enjoyed skiing, swimming, water skiing, scuba, dancing, aerobics, gymnastics, paddle ball, bicycling, hiking, tennis, and travel, as well as art from different cultures, music, films, history, reading, games, tea, sewing, and the companionship of her cats and dogs. Martina avidly boated, dove, and stargazed with fellow travelers along a thousand miles of the intracoastal waterway in the 1960’s and 70’s, and was able to go to Europe to tour and ski its mountains.
Martina met David Bedar in June of 1975 in Fire Island, NY. Having a powerful connection that inspired them and others, they married on February 13, 1977, overlooking New York City’s harbor out to the Statue of Liberty. A misty day opened up to sunshine as their wedding song “Here Comes the Sun” played.
As a couple, Martina and David lived in a cooperative in Elmhurst, NY, and then lived with their young son and daughter in Bayside, NY, from where they would continue to visit Fire Island and the Great South Bay as a family. Martina also outfitted her Bayside basement as a popular neighborhood children’s clothing-swap resource, “Tot 2 Tot.” The family would move to Charleston SC, where Martina studied counseling further at The Citadel College, and then to Novato, CA, where Martina worked to support youth at risk and people with disabilities in Marin and Contra Costa counties. She enjoyed the open spaces, the Golden Gate, ushering for theatre shows, her Soroptimist sisterhood, and visiting Dillon Beach.
Among Martina’s gifts were her spirit of adventure, her love of life, her ability to relate attentively to people’s experiences in ways that would yield wanted advice, her sense of humor and spontaneity, her independence, her grit, her volunteerism, her continuous learning, her open door, her willingly hosting many a holiday dinner for relatives, friends, and acquaintances, her overcoming (illness and more), her appreciation for language–including the poetry of Robert Frost and the novels of John Irving, among many others–and her devotion and steadfast support for her progeny and posterity.
Martina valued keeping family photo albums, tutored students, wrote letters and personal journals on diverse topics, and authored a memoir. She delighted in loving her husband, children, grandchildren, sister, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and even strangers. She had a belief in things destined, and she had a faith to live, let live, and let God.
Martina is survived by her husband David, son Michael, daughter Jaime, and grandchildren Gabrielle, Vincent, and Solari. All came to celebrate her at 80 years, and in the uniquely timed turn of Martina’s “dance to the beat of her own drum,” now celebrate her entire life.
Martina Phyllis Bedar was a woman who went extra miles for others’ sakes, and will ever live on in our hearts and souls touched by a lifetime of her care, giving, growing, learning, and love.
Martina Bedar’s memory remains a blessing. She is laid to rest at Fernwood, in Mill Valley, California, by the waves and free wild lands of Tennessee Valley Open Space.
Graveside services are to be held Wednesday, October 15, at 1:00 pm.
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In lieu of flowers, those who knew Martina may remember to dance, laugh, and show kindness, and/or if wishing choose a gift of service or funds in her remembrance to organizations which serve human needs, families at risk (FSA, for an example where Martina worked), healthy child development, protection of water and land, and/or animal welfare.
