Person:Elizabeth Kramm (1)

Few people confronted by a severe physical handicap have had the faith, courage and determination to not only triumph over its debilitating effects, but also, to make a positive contribution to society.

Elizabeth was born with Spina Bifida Oculta. The defect appeared at birth as a dimple on her lower back where the bony portion of one vertebrae had not fully enclosed the spinal cord. It was not noticed by the attending doctor; and even if it had been noticed, it is doubtful in 1913 that anything could have been done to correct the malformity.

Elizabeth enjoyed a normal life until age 10 when she twisted the ankle of her right foot. It became weaker and weaker until eventually it became a "club" foot. Despite a brace, by age 18 the foot was so deformed she was actually walking on the ankle itself. Furthermore, between the ages of 6 and 16, Elizabeth had temporarily lost use of her lower limbs that often lasted for two to four weeks at a time. No one knew the cause of this but suspected Elizabeth must have had Infantile Paralysis sometime in the past.

Elizabeth graduated from Grass Valley High School in 1931. She had no skills but hoped to pursue a career in writing. She yearned to go to college as her brothers were doing, but it was the peak of the Great Depression, and her father, a Jeweler, could not afford to send her. Each year he was going deeper in debt and was facing bankruptcy. Aunt Emma Koehler came to the rescue, giving Elizabeth $500 per year to spend as she needed. In those days, that was enough.

Elizabeth needed a new pair of shoes and went to San Francisco to be fitted. While there she stayed at the home of Thomas Hull, her Christian Science Practitioner and a friend of the family.

The shoe specialist shook his head, "your foot is too deformed to be fitted", he said with concern. He suggested that Mr. Hull take Elizabeth to a bone specialist in San Francisco whom he knew. Elizabeth agreed to have surgery. That was the turning point; both parents rallied in full support of her decision. During the next 2 years or so, Elizabeth underwent a period of several operations. Then, in 1934, Elizabeth entered the University of California at Berkeley.

At a high school class reunion in 1980 Elizabeth spoke about the rest of her life: "A series of operations freed me for three years from most of a physical handicap. But a final operation in the nerve ganglia of the lower spine (supposedly preventive) resulted in paralysis. A year of pool therapy at the University Hospital Physical Therapy Department did not help, I was fitted with long leg braces and crutches and continued my education at U.C. Berkeley. My major was Public Health and Social Economics. I graduated in 1942.

"My first job was that of a secretary at the Farm Security Administration in San Francisco. The U.S. entered World War II. I was offered a Junior grade position in my field of training (Public Health Analyst) in the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Sacramento. Three years later, 1945, a higher paying position with greater professional opportunity opened up in the Los Angeles County Tuberculous and Health Association. I applied and became the Association's Director of Social Studies.

"By the fall of 1947 a change in Association goals cost me my job. I had saved $4000. With that money plus two assistantships I was able to obtain my Masters Degree in Public Health (MPH) from U.C. Berkeley and my Master of Arts (MA) in Sociology from the University of North Carolina.

" ... In the fall (of 1950) I joined the staff of the School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. I was a Research Associate in Maternal and Child Health until the Spring of 1958. During those years I had the pleasure of mingling with students from all parts of the world, and meeting professionals who were making their mark in the medical world.

"I recall long talks with the "famous" baby doctor, Spock, on child growth and development; with Salk, whose laboratories were housed at the Municipal Hospital, where the School of Public Health was also housed; and with young scientists brought over from Europe, particularly Germany, to work on different aspects of the polio vaccine then being developed.

"(In 1956 I was) presented (with two grants totaling $1,500) by the Pennsylvania Association for Mentally Retarded and local Pittsburgh Chapter of State Ass'n for the purpose of studying home problems of families with retarded child living at home.

"As a faculty member, I was entitled to take courses at the University of Pittsburgh. I enrolled in evening and summer courses and in the spring of 1958 received a Ph. D, in the Behavioral Sciences. My thesis, an in-depth study of what happens to families who have a child afflicted with Downs Syndrome (Mongolism) was later published in part by the Children's Bureau in Washington, D.C. The study was also made the principle literature dedicated at a Kennedy Foundation conference on mental retardation. "In January 1959, I joined the Children's Bureau (Washington D.C.). In collaboration with the National Center for Health Statistics, I was responsible to the Bureau for carrying out a national demographic study of cystic fibrosis of the pancreas. The study was completed during 1966; finding were published in various professional journals.

"A new agency titled Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) was instituted in 1967. I joined the staff of SRS. By 1970 I was increasingly involved in monitoring research demonstration projects located across the country. The first of these were Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO's) for the medically needy and for welfare clients. Later I was assigned to the development projects of EPSDT (Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment) of poor children. The challenge was exciting, frustrating and rewarding. Working with pediatricians, nurses, educators, para-professionals and statisticians in the States, Universities and Schools - wherever our projects were located - was indeed f ascinating.

"Up until my retirement, October 10, 1979, I had monitored 20 EPSDT projects and had made at least one site visit to each, annually ... most of my 20 projects had been completed or were · near completion ... " Elizabeth's complete biography has been printed in "Whose Who Among American Professional Women." She has had 16 papers published in various professional journals. Elizabeth · has devoted most of her life and her energy to her profession for the good of society.

She lived in many cities and in situations far too numerous to mention in this brief. At Washington, D.C. she first lived at Quebec House. Later when Harbor Square on the Potomac River, 510 N Street S.W. was built, she was among the first to buy into the cooperative. She served on the governing board, belonged to the photography club where she frequently won awards, attended symphony concerts and plays. More than anything else she loved to drive through the countryside in her car equipped with hand controls. While her mother was alive they took many auto trips through both the Eastern and Western states, during holidays.

Elizabeth traveled extensively. Mostly in conjunction with her work, she visited some twenty countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, as well as Mexico and Canada. Her lovely apartment was tastefully decorated, in part by the objects of art acquired in her travels.

She makes friend easily. She genuinely enjoys people of all ages irrespective of color, class, religion, politics or education; for this she is respected and loved. She is particularly responsive to the family of her brother, Ernest, who in 1970 died early. He was a year older and they had been very close as they grew up together.

As time passed, Elizabeth's physical handicap has taken its toll. She can no longer take airplane trips and most travel has ceased. But she keeps in contact with her brothers and their children and her personal friends with long telephone conversations. In 1985 she sold her Harbor Square apartment and on August 30th, with the help of brothers, Douglas and Alfred and wife Margret, moved with her two cats to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she had bought into the retirement complex of Luther Crest, Brother Douglas lived (in 1989) barely two miles away, giving both of them a sense of family,