Beverly Byron, a conservative Democrat who represented Western Maryland in the House of Representatives for 14 years, died of heart failure Sunday at her Frederick home. She was 92.

Born in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Harry C. Butcher and Ruth Barton Butcher. Raised in Washington, D.C., where her father managed the CBS radio station, she had a childhoodimmersed in the political life and personalities of the capital. Her father in 1933 coined the term “fireside chat” for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s radio talks.

As a child, Mrs. Byron lunched informally with President Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, and swam in the White House pool.

She was a graduate of the National Cathedral School and attended Hood College.

In 1952, she married Maryland politician Goodloe Byron. In October 1978, at age 49, he suffered a fatal heart attack while jogging along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Williamsport. He was up for re-election a month later, and acting Maryland Gov. Blair Lee III named Mrs. Byron to replace her husband on the ballot.

Recalling that time of her life in a Washington Post interview, she said, “Within 24 hours I was a widow, a single parent, unemployed and a candidate for Congress.”

She won the election without campaigning. She took no contributions, made no speeches and made no appearances.

“When I was first elected, there were only 16 women in Congress, but four of them were from Maryland,” she said in a 2021 Frederick News Post interview.

She won seven consecutive elections and became Western Maryland’s representative from 1978 to 1992 when she was narrowly defeated in a primary. Her district also included portions of Howard and Montgomery counties.

“She used the experience she acquired as an unpaid aide to her husband and her family background to assert herself as an influential member of the Armed Services Committee,” said a House of Representatives history. “ As a staunch defender of both military and defense spending, Congresswoman Byron served as one of the more conservative Democrats in Congress.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, said in a statement Monday: “Beverly Byron was a true American patriot and great Marylander. She was a proponent for a strong national defense and American leadership around the world. As the first woman to chair a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, she was also a trailblazer for other women in the national security arena.

In 1984, she married former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development B. Kirk Walsh. He died in 2019.

A visitation will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. on Feb. 24 at the Keeney and Basford Funeral Homes in Frederick. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Feb. 25 at St. Ignatius of Loyola Roman Catholic Church in Ijamsville.

Survivors include her children, Goodloe Edgar Byron Jr., Barton Kimball Byron and Mary Byron Kunst; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

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