May 13, 2015

Florence Kramer

Florence Kramer was born in 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, into a warm and close family. Her father, the oldest of four brothers who all lived within two blocks of one another, was a beer distributor who had hoped to become a doctor but faced strict quotas limiting Jewish students at the University of Pittsburgh. Florence was the oldest of twelve grandchildren and the oldest cousin. She remembered her mother's very religious grandmother from Europe, for whom she tore toilet paper and turned off lights before the Sabbath, and a grandfather who was an optometrist in Greensburg. Two of her uncles served in World War II, one in the Navy and one in the Army, and both returned home.

Florence attended Penn State, where she earned certification as a special education teacher and met her husband, Larry. She recalled the strict rules for young women, curfews and sign-in sheets, and the fun of costume parties and campus life. After graduating and marrying that summer, she began teaching special needs students in Pittsburgh, including in a classroom near her home that was affected by the turmoil following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She and Larry had two children, Cheryl and Jeffrey, before moving to Dallas, a move she described as a culture shock that she came to love.

In Dallas, Florence became active in the Jewish community, first through the Federation, a cause her father had also supported. She worked hard to find her place as a newcomer among longtime Dallas families. Her favorite charity became community homes for adults with special needs, where young people age eighteen and up live together in supportive houses, an effort she credited in part to a mentor she admired. Her last job, which she loved, was starting the volunteer program at the Legacy of Willow Bend, a role her daughter Cheryl later took on. Florence and Larry have four grandchildren, and she takes great pride in her loving, humorous family.

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