(Editor’s note: this obituary was published by Terry Hekker’s family and disseminated by the Village of Nyack. For more details about her life and upcoming life celebration, visit terryhekker.com. To honor her life, the family is asking people to donate to Hekker’s beloved Nyack Center.)
To the heartbreak of her loving family, Terry Martin Hekker passed away in her home on October 20, 2025. A few weeks shy of her 93rd birthday, Terry lived an incredibly fascinating life, full of joy and laughter with her family and friends spanning every corner of her life.
Terry Martin Hekker was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1932, to John Martin and Marie O’Donohue Martin, the first grandchild to two large boisterous Irish families. Her father had worked at the family diner in mid-town Manhattan while running several NYC park concessions, and in 1941, he was tapped to take over the management of the Bear Mountain Inn.
Her family’s new home became the training camp for the Brooklyn Dodgers, NY Giants, and Knickerbockers, in addition to hosting three US Presidents and a variety of other notables – the stories in her life began to write themselves. In 1946 she and her father were invited by Branch Rickey to scout an impressive new baseball player in Daytona, Florida – a young man named Jackie Robinson.
Years later, while visiting the Dodgers team during spring training, she and her mother were asked by Mr. Rickey to drive Jackie and Roy Campanella from exhibition games after hearing the team would be stopping at restaurants that refused to serve him. This, an early lesson in the horrors of segregation and the treatment they endured on the road, continued to stay with Terry throughout her life.
After graduating Pratt Institute, she met and married Jack Hekker and the two settled in Nyack, NY, where they raised five children. Happily living in a busy home, she was thrilled to be a housewife only to find she was a dying breed. Always the humorist, Terry wrote an op-ed piece in the NY Times which became a wildly popular book about those formative years: Ever Since Adam and Eve.
This book led to numerous publications and articles in national and international magazines, as well as lectures across the country, where she explored the subjects of marriage and children through her signature satirical lens. She became a NY Times Bestseller and her book tour led to appearances on Good Morning America, The Today Show, over 50 local television talk and news shows, speaking to such notable media giants as Tom Brokaw and Oprah.
In an unexpected twist, Terry found herself divorced after 40 years of marriage, inadvertently sending her into a new career of politics. She served on various town boards, the Nyack Chamber of Commerce and as a village trustee before making local history in 1994 as the first woman elected Mayor of Nyack, guiding the cherished community she had long called home through three terms of leadership.
As Mayor she was responsible for securing over $1.2 million dollars in grant funding for projects that would improve the lives of the people in her beloved village by creating affordable housing, revitalizing the downtown business district and fortifying Nyack’s waterfront and Memorial Park. One of her crowning achievements was her fierce advocacy behind the creation of the Nyack Center.
Through this, her writing continued and a piece she wrote in 2006 about divorce later in life for the NY Times’ Modern Love column received great reviews and morphed into another book. The irony of her first book championing a happy marriage meant this could not be a proper sequel, so she titled it Disregard First Book. Terry returned to the Today Show, laughing along as they replayed her original 1980s interview, while excerpts from her new book were reprinted in major publications, discussed on podcasts, and even inspired an Irish ballad about lost love.
Terry spent the latter half of her life in her three-story walk-up apartment above a store in downtown Nyack where she loved to peek out of her window and wave to the local shopkeepers. During summers she headed to the shores of Ocean Grove, NJ. Terry loved the beach and sitting on the porch with friends and neighbors exchanging funny quips and tales.
She is survived by her children Jack (Julie), Peter (Mary Ellen), Michael, Annie (Paul Weiss) and Tommy (Erika). Terry viewed the introduction of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren as a glorious “Harvest Time.” Her “harvest” included grandchildren Brian, Casey, Annie, Katherine, Mary, Ellie, Tim, Abi, Ryan, Charlotte, Cecilia and Shane, and great-grandchildren Summer, Ayana and Teddy.
Terry is also leaving behind her brothers Judge John S. Martin, Michael Martin and her sister Susie Martin. She was predeceased by her brothers Francis and William and her children’s father, Jack Hekker.
Regarding old age, Terry wrote, “If you fight age, you will lose… no one gets out alive. So best accept and enjoy it day by day, while admitting that your future is limited and your body now doubles as a time bomb. Groucho Marx said it best: ‘Dying is the last thing I want to do.’”
Editor’s Note: For more on Hekker’s life and words, check out the following links (courtesy of the Village of Nyack and current mayor, Joe Rand):
· TerryHekker.com, which has a collection of her posts sharing her thoughts and humor.
· A page from VisitNyack.com that contains a notice about her being named a “Local Woman of Leadership.”
· A Nyack News and Views article about her about her memories and thoughts about downtown Nyack.
· A 2006 article in The Times about her and her experience writing her celebrated book.
Terry published two books (Editor’s note: instead of purchasing on one of the mega sites, it is believed Hekker would want you to order through one of Nyack’s local booksellers):
· Ever Since Adam and Eve: The Satisfactions of Housewifery and Motherhood in the Age of Do-Your-Own Thing. (ISBN 13: 9780688034825)
· Disregard First Book. (ISBN-13 978-1440131240)
