Mary V. Kraemer

Mary Virginia Kraemer, nee Bordash, of West Norriton, died Monday at Brandywine Senior Suites in East Norriton. 

She went to her rest with family at her side. She was ninety-four.

Virginia, as she liked to be known, was born to Carl and Helen Bordash (nee Harvey) of Nashwauk, in the Iron Range of Minnesota. She was a sister to Dick, Betty, Carol and Sharon. 

She was preceded in death by a loving husband, George T Kraemer (1927 - 2016) and is survived by five children and their spouses: George and wife Claudia, Katharyn and husband Mike, Thomas and wife Judy, Andrew and wife Pat and Karen and spouse Kari; ten grandchildren: Adrienne, Andrew, William, Gretchen, Ellen, Daniel, Matthew, Brooke, Jack and Cooper; and one great-grandchild: Abigail. All are tall, good looking and above average.

Her father was a miner and, briefly, the mayor of Nashwauk. He died in a job-site accident while Virginia was still young. After graduating highschool in 1944, Virginia enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, which took her to Biloxi Mississippi. After the service, she moved to New York City’s Greenwich Village, where she found work as a typist at the Bell Telephone Company. There she met George T. Kraemer, an electrical engineer for Bell Laboratories. They courted over long walks and movies at the many midtown theaters. They married in 1958.

George Philip, their eldest, was born in January of 1959. Their family grew from one to two to three children by fall of 1961 and five by the summer of 1966. The need for space pushed Virginia and her husband to move to New Jersey, first to Edison then Warren Township and eventually to Holmdel when George was transferred to the Bell Labs facility there.

She was a dedicated household manager. With five children and a husband, she was tasked with preparing seven meals three times a day, seven days a week. Every morning, hot breakfasts were prepared, and lunches were made and packed. Every afternoon around 4:00, dinner, consisting of a protein (meat or fish), a starch (potatoes, rice or pasta) and two green vegetables was begun and put on the table at exactly 5:30. 

There were family outings to local orchards to pick bag after bag of apples. She canned peaches, cooked soup from scratch, baked birthday cakes, made buttercream frosting, kneaded bread dough into loaves, shaped oatmeal raisin, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, rolled pie crusts and cut fruit for filling.

She raised her children to have good table manners: no arms on the table, no fingers on plates, no chewing with an open mouth.

Nothing was wasted. Each school year, textbooks were wrapped in sturdy brown paper bags from the grocery store. Virginia developed a prodigious skill with a sewing needle. She patched and hemmed pants, could make a dress from a pattern and sewed a Magellan costume, complete with bloomers and gold breastplate, for a school play. 

She was similarly gifted with a knitting needle. Several cable-knit sweaters survived the decades and stand as proof.

Virginia was a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and a member of the National Organization for Women.

After her kids were all in college, Virginia embarked from New Jersey on an epic cross-continent road trip, through Minnesota to Seattle, then south to California to visit her brother, east to the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns and eventually back to the East Coast, catching up with old friends Lee and Ken Boyd in Florida and Jackie Ring in North Carolina.

Virginia and her husband divorced in 1986 but remained friends. She moved with her golden retriever Sally to a four-acre homestead on a hillside in Berks County where deer and wild turkeys were her closest neighbors.

In her later years she lived with three of her children and was always helpful around the house, especially outside. Even into her 80s, she helped with the weeding in the garden, shoveling snow and stacking the smaller branches that fell from the silver maple trees in her backyard. She loved to garden and did so into her 90th year.

In 2018, Virginia moved to Brandywine Senior Suites in East Norriton. The staff was always patient and kind with her, but it was difficult for Virginia not to be able to see the faces of those she loved every day. 

Her children are forever grateful to the staff at Brandywine for keeping her safe through the pandemic and keeping her comfortable in her final days.

 Funeral arrangements are in the care of the Volpe Funeral Home. volpefh.com

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