Dr. Anny Elston (nee Halpert) was a pediatrician born at Gera in Thuringia, Germany on March 21, 1895. The daughter of Eugene Halpert, a textile manufacturer, Dr. Elston was educated in Germany at a secondary school for girls at Gera and the "Real-gymnasium" for girls at Leipzig. Dr. Elston, in her curriculum vitae describes the "Real-gymnasium as a type of German high school that combines the teaching of classical and modern subjects. She studied medicine at the University of Freiburg, Jena, Heidelberg and Munich, receiving her medical degree in 1920. During World War I, while continuing her studies, Dr. Elston worked as a Red Cross Nurses Aid and as a Red Cross Student Nurse, quite frequently in military hospitals. She also interned at the Medical Clinic at the University of Heidelberg, the Municipal Hospital for Women and the County Hospital of Milbitz in Thuringia. After passing the Medical State Examination at the University of Jena, Dr. Elston served her "practical year" at the Medical University Clinic Kiel where she completed her experimental research work and obtained her degree of Medical Doctor. From 1920 to 1924, Dr. Elston worked as intern and then resident at the Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria Haus, Reichsanstalt zur BeKampfung der Sauglings--und Kleinkindersterblichkeit.

In 1922, Dr. Elston married Freidrich (“Fritz” and “Fred”) Gerhard Edelstein, an attorney, and they had two sons in 1924 and 1928. In 1924, Dr. Elston opened her own practice in Berlin-Wilmersdorf as a pediatrician and continued in this practice until October 1938 when she "lost [her] profession by the Racial Laws in German," (Curriculum Vitae, Box 1, Folder 1) which prohibited her from practicing medicine because was Jewish. Dr. Elston and her husband considered themselves “racial Jews” only, as they were members of the Lutheran Church.

In 1938 she had her necessary legal documents translated into English at the American consulate and in 1939, she and her husband sent their sons (Gerhard, or Gerd and Wolfgang, or Wolf) to a boarding school for refugees in England. She and Fritz immigrated to the United States on April 25, 1941 and changed their name to Elston. Shortly before the end of the war, Gerhard and Wolfgang joined their parents in the United States. In 1942, she passed her New York state board exam and began work at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.

Dr. Elston's husband Fritz taught German and math at Seton Hall College in New Jersey for many years until he died of a heart attack in 1956. Her son Wolfgang earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University and continues to work as Professor Emeritus in Geology at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Elston retired on March 31, 1972 after 48 years in medical practice, citing an eye-ailment and a decreased ability to read as one of the reasons. She died in 1975, shortly before her 80th birthday.