Notes:
Data source is the 1990 book, "Moomaw-Mumma-Mumaw-Mumaugh Genealogy" compiled by Robert Austin Moomaw (deceased).
Betty O'Connell passed away quietly on Sept. 13, 2014. She was 100 years old.
Betty was born in Ross County on July 16, 1914 as Elizabeth Eleanor Moomaw, first of four daughters born to Forrest and Mary Moomaw.
She began life as a farm girl who hand-pumped water for the kitchen and rode work horses to bring in the hay. Elizabeth, then called "Libby", worked her way through college during the Depression, graduating from Miami University in Oxford in 1936 with a degree in Home Economics. She started a life-long relationship with the American Association of University Women that lasted to the month of her death. She taught high school subjects for seven years before joining the American Red Cross during World War II. She landed in Normandy within weeks after the Allied invasion and quickly assumed duties in a Paris hospital.
Following the war, she traveled as a style consultant for Simplicity Pattern Company, managing fashion shows in department stores around the Midwest. She completed her Master of Arts Degree at Ohio State University in 1946, specializing in textiles. She taught at Kent State University in Cleveland and later at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. While in Cleveland, she married Howard "Hop" Kramer, who taught American History at Western Reserve University, and began her family. They travelled to India in 1952 with two small children on Hop's Fulbright fellowship, where Hop's students drenched them both with colored water on the Holi festival, and three-year-old John got lost in the teeming Bombay train station.
After some time in Texas, the Kramer family settled in Washington D.C. in 1956 where Betty lived for 45 years. She was an active homemaker and volunteer with the United Givers Charity, the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation (RRUUC), and the Smithsonian Institute. The Kramer family hosted several young people for extended periods, including Faisel Al-Jassem from Kuwait. In 1973 they went around the world as chaperones for the winners of a youth science contest. Hop passed away in 1975 after an extended illness.
She was a Smithsonian consultant for 25 years in the costumes department, archiving the collections and creating displays. During this part of her life she explored creative arts and crafts, painting, wood carving and fabric art. She created numerous tapestries and pattern-quilted pieces, many of which are cherished today by her many fans. Her administrative and political acumen led to her serving for years as the president of her condominium association. She married Joseph O'Connell in 1984 with whom she played Scrabble daily and read the Great Books Series until his death in 2000. She attributed her mental acuity later in life to this daily exercise. She returned to Greenfield in 2003 and then to Angels Camp, Calif. in 2007 where she resided at Foothill Village until her death. She created several masterpiece quilts including a queen-sized hand quilted work in her 99th year. She believed that creativity promotes a purposeful life.
She is survived by daughter, Prof. Malka Schaps, and son-in-law, Prof. David Schaps in B'nai B'rak, Israel; their two children; 11 great-grandchildren; Malka's two foster children and their six children. She is also survived by son, John H. Kramer, and daughter-in-law, Renee Kramer, of Vallecito, Calif.; their adult children, Russell Kramer of Arcata, Calif., Natalie (Kramer) Anderson of Fort Collins, Colo., and Stephanie Kramer of Washington, D.C.
Published in Times Gazette from Oct. 1 to Oct. 2, 2014