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Senator Byrd

Leadership.      Character.      Commitment.

Erma Ora James Byrd
1917-2006

Erma Byrd, Senator Byrd's wife of nearly 69 years, passed away on March 25, 2006, after battling a long illness.

Born in Floyd County, Virginia, Erma Ora James moved to the West Virginia coalfields with her family. She met her future husband while both were students at Mark Twain School in Raleigh County. Erma and Robert Byrd were married when they both were just 19 years old. The small ceremony, attended only by their parents, was at the home of the Reverend U. G. Nichols on May 29, 1937.

Byrd said of his wife on the occasion of their 65th wedding anniversary in 2002: "Erma and I are complete and whole, a total that is more than the sum of its parts. In my life, Erma Ora Byrd is the diamond. She is a priceless treasure, a multifaceted woman of great insight and wisdom, of quiet humor and common sense."

"I wish that more people could know the joy I have had in finding one’s soul mate early in life and then sharing that deep companionship over many happy years," Byrd said.

The daughter of a coal miner, Erma Byrd met presidents and senators, kings, queens, and celebrities. Yet, she never lost the commonsense values that she gained growing up in West Virginia.

Mrs. Byrd never sought the limelight. She did not give her first media interview until 1982 -- 30 years after her husband was first elected to the Congress. In that interview with the Charleston Daily Mail, she said, "I leave the politics to Robert. The people elected him, not me."

"I think a lot of people feel that life in Washington is glamorous for the wife of a Senator, but it really isn’t. It’s hard. The husbands are very busy and away from home, and you have to build your day around that. I don’t go to many social functions like some others try to do. We enjoy a quiet evening at home," Mrs. Byrd said in that interview.

The Byrds came up the hard way. Their first refrigerator was half of an orange crate nailed to the side of their home. They didn’t care for fancy frills or celebrity. Early in their relationship, they spent many hours at square dances and community events, where Robert would play his fiddle and Erma would dance.

The Byrds are members of the Crab Orchard Baptist Church in Raleigh County, West Virginia, where they were baptized in the summer of 1944.

After World War II, when Robert Byrd returned home from welding in the shipyards of Baltimore, Maryland, and Tampa, Florida, Mrs. Byrd was busy raising their daughters while her husband began work in a grocery store. Eventually, the Byrds opened their own grocery store at Sophia in 1948, which Mrs. Byrd ran after her husband was elected to the West Virginia Legislature.

But the grocery business was not to be their calling. Public service was. After serving in the West Virginia Legislature, Robert Byrd ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, winning election to the 6th District seat in 1952.

Soon after he entered Congress, then-Representative Byrd enrolled in law school -- something he could not have done without the patient support of his wife.

"When I was going to school at night to earn my law degree, Erma kept the home fires burning. She took the lead in bringing up our two daughters, teaching them to be the fine women, mothers, and grandmothers they are," Byrd has said of his wife. "I often say that she put three kids through college -- our two daughters and me."

Throughout her life, Mrs. Byrd focused on her family. The Byrds have been blessed with two daughters, six grandchildren (one deceased), and six great-grandchildren.

But Mrs. Byrd has also been a great advocate for children in West Virginia. Many awards have been conferred upon her. But a few stand out: her 1999 selection as "Mother of the Year" by the Thunder on the Tygart Foundation, presented in Grafton at the birthplace of Mother’s Day; the naming of two academic scholarship programs -- one at Marshall University and another at West Virginia University; and her selection as part of the inaugural class of the "Graduates of Distinction" of the West Virginia Education Alliance, all highlighting her commitment to helping West Virginia’s young people get ahead in life.

Erma Byrd’s life is a model for young women in West Virginia and all across the nation. Her love of family, her quiet determination, her fine sense of humor, and her simple elegance have left their mark on all who met her.

Mrs. Byrd is survived by her husband, Senator Robert C. Byrd; daughter Mona Carole Byrd Fatemi and her husband Mohammed; daughter Marjorie Ellen Byrd Moore and her husband Jon; grandson Erik Fatemi and his wife Alisann; grandson Darius Fatemi and his wife Renee; grandson Fredrik Fatemi and his wife Jinny; granddaughter Mona Byrd Moore Pearson and her husband Randy; granddaughter Mary Anne Moore Clarkson and her husband Jamie; great-granddaughters Caroline Byrd Fatemi, Kathryn James Fatemi, Anna Cristina Honora Fatemi, Emma James Clarkson, and Hannah Byrd Clarkson; and great-grandson Michael Yoo Fatemi.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Fred and Mary James; her sister, Beulah Minton; and grandson Jon Michael Moore.

In lieu of flowers, the Byrd family requests that donations be made to the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center at West Virginia University. (WVU Health Sciences Center; Development Office G-106; P.O. Box 9008; Morgantown, W.Va.; 26506. The fund number is 2V186.) Donations also can be made to local animal humane shelters and societies.

Mrs. Byrd was a member of the Senate Wives’ Club and has been involved in Senate Wives’ Red Cross projects since 1958. In 1990, Mrs. Byrd was selected Daughter of the Year by the West Virginia Society of Washington, D.C.

The University of Hard Knocks at Alderson-Broaddus College awarded Mrs. Byrd a degree and named her President of the Class of 1991. In 1994, Marshall University initiated the Erma Byrd Scholars program that awards up to six scholarships each year to Marshall students. In 1996, the Loyalty Permanent Endowment Fund of the West Virginia University Alumni Association established the Erma Ora Byrd Scholarship, awarded annually to a West Virginia high school graduate. The Erma Byrd Garden on the grounds of Graceland Mansion at Davis and Elkins College was dedicated in Mrs. Byrd’s honor in October 1997. That same month, Mrs. Byrd received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Wheeling Jesuit University, and the Erma Ora Byrd Center for Educational Technologies on the University’s campus was dedicated. In May 1999, Mrs. Byrd was named Mother of the Year by the Thunder on the Tygart Foundation, and received her award at the Birthplace of Anna Jarvis, whose life work inspired Mother’s Day. In May 1999, she received the Graduate of Distinction Award from the Education Alliance in Charleston. The Erma Byrd Gallery at the University of Charleston opened in January 2004.

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