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Betty Mae Kramer dies; founder of Montgomery
County Executive's Ball
By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Betty Mae Kramer, 80, founder of the Montgomery County Executive's Ball while
her husband served as the top county official, died March 12 of Parkinson's disease
at her daughter's home in Glenelg. She lived in north Bethesda.
Mrs. Kramer organized a team of volunteers in 1986 to create the ball, which has
raised more than $1 million over the past 24 years to support nonprofit arts and
humanities organizations in Montgomery County. She was honored by the county
with a special lifetime achievement award in 2007 for her work on the ball.
She also testified at county hearings to advocate for stricter anti-smoking laws, and
she raised money and helped plan the Strathmore arts center. Mrs. Kramer led
voluntarism efforts in Montgomery County in the late 1980s, organizing the county's
part in a National Day of Service and doing her own part by singing "Red Sails in
the Sunset" to residents of the National Lutheran Home.
"As we've become more urbanized, we've had a tendency to lose some of our sense
of community," she said in 1988. "But Montgomery County has very strong
volunteer groups. And I think part of it is, being the best-educated county in the
country, the citizens know how to pull strings and get things done. And we care."
Her singing was also a customary part of election night, at least until her husband,
Sidney Kramer, lost his reelection bid in the 1990 Democratic primary to Neal
Potter. It had been a hard-fought campaign in which the opposition questioned the
propriety of county workers driving Mrs. Kramer to meet her husband at the
receptions, ceremonies and functions that are the lifeblood of public life.
Mrs. Kramer, known as a stylish and dedicated partisan who wore clothes
incorporating her husband's yellow-and-black campaign colors during the race, was
so upset at his loss that she lambasted Potter for his campaign's attacks on her
husband, herself and their family. "For that, I will never forgive you," she said at a
traditional post-primary party unity meeting.
She encouraged her husband to launch a write-in campaign for the general election,
telling reporters, "I had my arm twisted by people saying, 'You can't let the county
go down the drain,' " but he lost that election as well.
Two of their children now represent Montgomery County as Democrats in the
General Assembly.
Betty Mae Kerman was a native Washingtonian and graduated from McKinley
Tech High School in 1948. She married in 1950, and graduated from the old
Wilson Teachers College in 1953. She and her husband moved to Silver Spring in
1960, and they remained Montgomery County residents for the rest of her life.
She was a Democratic precinct chair and active in the Jewish Council for the Aging,
performing show tunes, Hebrew folk music, Yiddish ballads and 1940s love songs
on the "Jewish seniors circuit," her family said.
In addition to her husband of 60 years, survivors include three children, Miriam
Dubin of Glenelg, state Sen. Rona E. Kramer of Olney and state Del. Benjamin F.
Kramer of Derwood; a brother, Edward Kerman of Potomac; a sister, Iris Kerman
of Lusby; and eight grandchildren.
County Executive's Ball
By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Betty Mae Kramer, 80, founder of the Montgomery County Executive's Ball while
her husband served as the top county official, died March 12 of Parkinson's disease
at her daughter's home in Glenelg. She lived in north Bethesda.
Mrs. Kramer organized a team of volunteers in 1986 to create the ball, which has
raised more than $1 million over the past 24 years to support nonprofit arts and
humanities organizations in Montgomery County. She was honored by the county
with a special lifetime achievement award in 2007 for her work on the ball.
She also testified at county hearings to advocate for stricter anti-smoking laws, and
she raised money and helped plan the Strathmore arts center. Mrs. Kramer led
voluntarism efforts in Montgomery County in the late 1980s, organizing the county's
part in a National Day of Service and doing her own part by singing "Red Sails in
the Sunset" to residents of the National Lutheran Home.
"As we've become more urbanized, we've had a tendency to lose some of our sense
of community," she said in 1988. "But Montgomery County has very strong
volunteer groups. And I think part of it is, being the best-educated county in the
country, the citizens know how to pull strings and get things done. And we care."
Her singing was also a customary part of election night, at least until her husband,
Sidney Kramer, lost his reelection bid in the 1990 Democratic primary to Neal
Potter. It had been a hard-fought campaign in which the opposition questioned the
propriety of county workers driving Mrs. Kramer to meet her husband at the
receptions, ceremonies and functions that are the lifeblood of public life.
Mrs. Kramer, known as a stylish and dedicated partisan who wore clothes
incorporating her husband's yellow-and-black campaign colors during the race, was
so upset at his loss that she lambasted Potter for his campaign's attacks on her
husband, herself and their family. "For that, I will never forgive you," she said at a
traditional post-primary party unity meeting.
She encouraged her husband to launch a write-in campaign for the general election,
telling reporters, "I had my arm twisted by people saying, 'You can't let the county
go down the drain,' " but he lost that election as well.
Two of their children now represent Montgomery County as Democrats in the
General Assembly.
Betty Mae Kerman was a native Washingtonian and graduated from McKinley
Tech High School in 1948. She married in 1950, and graduated from the old
Wilson Teachers College in 1953. She and her husband moved to Silver Spring in
1960, and they remained Montgomery County residents for the rest of her life.
She was a Democratic precinct chair and active in the Jewish Council for the Aging,
performing show tunes, Hebrew folk music, Yiddish ballads and 1940s love songs
on the "Jewish seniors circuit," her family said.
In addition to her husband of 60 years, survivors include three children, Miriam
Dubin of Glenelg, state Sen. Rona E. Kramer of Olney and state Del. Benjamin F.
Kramer of Derwood; a brother, Edward Kerman of Potomac; a sister, Iris Kerman
of Lusby; and eight grandchildren.