Beverly Byron, former Md. congresswoman, dies at 92

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Beverly Byron, former Md. congresswoman, dies at 92

Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters
February 10, 2025, 5:24 PM

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Former Rep. Beverly Byron posed for a photo. 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. (Courtesy Maryland Matters)

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.

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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.

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Beverly Byron, Md. congresswoman and Armed Services member, dies at 92
Vaulted to Congress when she was elected in 1978 to succeed her late husband, she quickly established herself as a House member in her own right.

February 10, 2025

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