As an elementary school student in Minnesota in the 1930s, Dede Emerson recalled how she had to wear a sign pinned to her shirt advising teachers not to let her write with her left hand.

Her mother, though, didn't tolerate such restraints, Emerson said, promptly scribbling her own advice on the same piece of paper: "Leave her alone."

"She was not the kind of mother who said 'You better not do that,' " reminisced Emerson from her Ossining residence. "She would say, 'Try it.' She let me blossom."

Taking that road-less-traveled approach appears to have served the 76-year-old well.

A map of the world with pins covering 91 countries and another street map of Manhattan with yellow markings of the 6,718 blocks she recently walked and chronicled in her self-published book, "A Different Kind of Streetwalker ... Manhattan By Foot, One Block At A Time," hang prominently in her home, serving as a reminder of a life she dared to live.

"I've had a lot of little twists in life," she laughed.

Emerson moved to New York City in the 1950s to study jazz piano at Juilliard.

It was watching Nat King Cole play the piano live that sold her on becoming a jazz pianist, she said.

But after a solo trip around the world in 1962 to such places as Egypt, Yemen and India, Emerson changed her career path.

"Seeing such poverty, especially among kids, it just breaks your heart," she said.

Shortly after her return, Emerson walked into the United Nations building and asked for a job, she said.

She worked for the agency for some 30 years, retiring in 1994 after having served in a variety of capacities, including acting resident representative to Trinidad.

Emerson's next adventure was triggered not far from the U.N.'s headquarters.

While meeting friends for lunch, Emerson said she noticed these bronze plaques embedded on the sidewalk along 41st Street.

"I'd never seen that before and I thought, 'What else haven't I seen?' " she said. "It just came to me, I'll walk this place."

And so on April 24, 2005, Emerson, who is divorced with no children, set out on foot to cover every street in Manhattan, a 504.3-mile journey that would take her two years, nine months and two days to complete.

"It was like walking 12 different countries," Emerson said. "It was a great odyssey."

Armed with a map and a camera, she ventured from her home each Sunday to wander the concrete byways of the city, from 220th Street down to Battery Park, with no set pattern or direction.

She snapped 2,200 pictures of what she called the "everyday yet offbeat side of Manhattan."

Some of her whimsical photos, including a chess table on 4th Street, a snowman on 50th Street and live chickens on 125th Street, made it into her picture book.

As she reflected on her experience, Emerson said the city is a much safer, friendlier and cleaner place than when she first arrived or worked there.

She felt safest in Harlem, she said, uplifted by the church choir music wafting through the air.

"It's funny to say this, but the city is better than it was 50 years ago," she said.