Beverly Byron obit

Beverly Byron, former Md. congresswoman, dies at 92

Western Maryland lawmaker was part of a powerful political family

 

She was not on the list.

Beverly Byron, part of a powerful and durable Western Maryland Democratic family and one of only 11 women elected to represent Maryland in Congress, died Sunday of heart failure at her home in Frederick, surrounded by several members of her family. She was 92.

Byron came from a family steeped in public service — her father Harry Butcher was trailblazing radio reporter and the Naval aide to General Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II who coined the term “fireside chats” to describe President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s radio addresses — and married into another one.

Both of Byron’s in-laws, William D. Byron and Katharine Byron, were elected to the 6th District congressional seat in Western Maryland, and her husband, Goodloe Byron, held the same seat from 1971 until his sudden death, while jogging along the C&O Canal, in October 1978. Beverly Byron replaced her husband on the ballot that fall and was elected easily, then won reelection to six additional terms.

In a 2019 interview with Maryland Matters, Byron recalled being a newly widowed 46-year-old mother who suddenly found that she needed a job. A day after Goodloe Byron died, acting Gov. Blair Lee III (D) visited her home and urged her to seek her husband’s seat. Byron had been active in her husband’s political campaigns for Congress and the General Assembly but had never considered a political career of her own.

Although Byron took 90% of the vote in that election, the state political establishment widely assumed she’d be a one-term placeholder, as her mother-in-law Katharine Byron had been following the death of William D. Byron in a plane crash more than three decades earlier.

“I was told, ‘Well, we’ll nominate her and she’ll just serve one term and we can get a real candidate in there,’ Beverly Byron said in the 2019 interview. “Well, I don’t think they thought I was going to stay for 14 years.”

In Congress, Byron focused largely on military and national security issues. She eventually became chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel and Compensation, and by her own estimate once held major sway over 40% of the Pentagon’s budget.

Byron was also the original sponsor of national “Rails-to-Trails” legislation, helping expand the nationwide network of hiking and recreational trails. She was a major champion of the National Parks system and particularly boosted National Parks properties in Western Maryland — Antietam, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and the 180-mile long C&O Canal National Historical Park.

Byron was considered a conservative Democrat at a time when there were plenty of them serving on Capitol Hill, and she often supported the priorities of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush over the objections of her more liberal colleagues.

In fact, it was Byron’s ideology that likely doomed her political career: She lost the 1992 Democratic primary to Thomas Hattery, a liberal state lawmaker, by 12 points; he would lose the general election to Republican Roscoe Bartlett, who wound up serving for two decades until losing his own reelection bid, to Democrat John Delaney, in 2012. Now Delaney’s wife, April McClain Delaney (D), holds the 6th District congressional seat.

Even after her time in Congress ended, Byron remained active, chairing the boards of CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, Maryland TEDCO and the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1993, Bush appointed her to serve on the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which recommended changes and closures for military bases to Congress. She also served on the Defense Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Women in Service, and helped to build the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

Byron followed political developments closely until the end of her life, friends and family members said, and she felt especially obligated to mentor younger women who were entering politics. Political leaders are starting to offer tributes to the late congresswoman.

“Sending so much love to the entire Byron family today with the passing of former Congresswoman Beverly Byron — their incredible matriarch,” McClain Delaney said in a statement. “John and I so respected Bev for her piercing intellect, dry humor, dogged persistence, long public service and her big heart. As a trailblazing woman in Congress — when women comprised only 3% of elected members — she balanced family (as a solo parent!), service to the 6th District and incredible thought leadership.

As the “first woman in the 30 years following her tenure to represent Maryland’s 6th District,” McClain Delaney said she felt “privileged to come to know her incredible spirit and learn from her life experiences.”

“At 92, she still kept abreast of every political development, was seemingly sharper than most half her age and even up to two weeks ago was calling me with sage insights,” she said. “God bless you, Bev, for a life well lived in purpose and community, and a light for all to see.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th), whose district once overlapped with parts of Byron’s old district, said she “never lost her passion for public things and the common good in her beloved Frederick County and in Maryland. She’s been helpful to me from my first day in Congress, and I will always treasure her friendship.”

Former U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), whose tenure in Congress overlapped with Byron’s, called her former colleague “a great advocate for our state and a real champion for the United States military.”

“I worked very closely with Congresswoman Byron to bring resources to Western Maryland, jobs and opportunity for the region and support for men and women in the military,” Mikulski said. “She took a very keen interest in military families and what they needed as they protected us. She was outdoorsy and I was indoorsy — we made a perfect combination. Bev Byron was a real trailblazer.”

Byron is survived by her children — Goodloe Edgar Byron Jr., Barton Kimball Byron and Mary Byron Kunst; her daughters-in-law Jane Byron and Hannah Byron; her grandchildren Mollie Byron, Hank Byron, Goodloe Byron III, Philip Byron, Garrett Byron, Byron Kunst, and Katherine Kunst; and her great-grandchildren David Owens, Kinsey Owens, and Charlize Byron.

Mollie Byron is director of intergovernmental affairs and a senior adviser to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D).

After Goodloe Byron died, the congresswoman married B. Kirk Walsh, a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 1984, and they were together until his death in 2019.

The Byron family said that visitation will be held at Keeney and Basford Funeral Homes in Frederick on Feb. 24, from 3-6 p.m. A memorial service will be held on Feb. 25 at St. Ignatius of Loyola in Ijamsville at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that contributions can be made to the American Heart Association and the Catoctin Land Trust.