Dorothy E. Cramer

Dorothy E. CramerJune 15, 1918 - December 17, 2015Yesterday evening, December 17, 2015, Dorothy E. Cramer went home to heaven. She was a great mother that always put her family first. She loved her children and grandchildren more than anything else in this world. She was part of the Greatest Generation. Raised in Pittsburgh, her family mined coal through the Depression to keep food on the table. She learned to cook, feeding the hungry coal miners each night from the food grown in the garden and on the small family farm adjacent to the coal mine. Dorothy was the first in her family to earn a college degree and did so with the highest grade point average in the class. She met and married her husband, Master Sergeant Richard Cramer, during WWII. Dorothy managed restaurants and food services for the Statler Hotel in Washington, DC during the war and went on to manage the restaurants and food services for Marshall Fields & Company in Chicago, until she retired.She helped to create the memories for so many Chicago families with Christmas lunch by the tree in the Walnut Room. She also authored several cookbooks, all the while volunteering her time at her church and as a Girl Scout Leader in her community. Dorothy was a great lady in every sense of the word.She is preceded in death by her mother, Katheryn Eckert and by her husband Richard Cramer in 2004.Dorothy is survived by her son, James (Karen) Cramer, her daughter Virginia Cramer and her three grandchildren: Alyssa (Eric) Rohlman, Christian Cramer, and McKendra Cramer.Service will be held at 10:00am on Monday, December 21, 2015 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel at St. John's the Baptist Church. She will be laid to rest at Longmont Mountain View Cemetery. Contributions can be made to St. John Catholic Church.