Beverly Barton Butcher Byron (born July 27, 1932), a Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

, was a U.S. Congresswoman

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 who represented the 6th congressional district of Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

 from January 3, 1979 to January 3, 1993.

Byron was born in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland. She attended the National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington, D.C.. Byron earned a two-year degree from Hood College

Hood College

Hood College is a co-educational liberal arts college located in Frederick, Maryland. The college serves approximately 1,050 graduate students and more than 1,400 undergraduate students.-Early History :...

 in Frederick, Maryland

Frederick, Maryland

Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...

, and after graduation she became involved in several nonprofit groups and in fundraising for the Democratic Party. She was elected to Congress to replace her husband, Representative Goodloe Byron

Goodloe Byron

Goodloe Edgar Byron , a Democrat, was a U.S. Congressman who represented the 6th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1971 until his death on October 11, 1978...

, who died on October 11, 1978. While in Congress she served on the House Armed Services Committee, the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, and the House Select Committee on Aging. She was one of only two women ever to fly aboard the SR-71 Blackbird

SR-71 Blackbird

The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft. It was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960s by the Lockheed Skunk Works. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was responsible for many of the...

 of the USAF

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 (checkout #429), on which she flew as a VIP in November, 1985.

Like her husband, Byron was a conservative Democrat. She was defeated in the 1992 Democratic primary by a somewhat more liberal challenger, State Delegate

Maryland House of Delegates

The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland, and is composed of 141 Delegates elected from 47 districts. The House chamber is located in the state capitol building on State Circle in Annapolis...

 Thomas Hattery. Hattery went on to lose to Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 Roscoe Bartlett

Roscoe Bartlett

Roscoe Gardner Bartlett, Ph.D. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party, and a member of the Tea Party Caucus...

 in the general election. Bartlett had lost to Byron in the 1982 election.

Beverly Byron is the daughter-in-law of William D. Byron

William D. Byron

William Devereux Byron, II , a Democrat, was a U.S. Congressman who represented the 6th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1939 to February 27, 1941. After his death in an airplane crash in Georgia on February 27, 1941, his widow, Katharine Byron, a granddaughter of U.S. Senator...

 and Katharine E. Byron, who both represented Maryland's 6th district in 1939–1941 and 1941–1943, respectively.