Byron, Beverly B. (Beverly Barton), 1932-

Beverly Barton Butcher Byron (born July 27, 1932) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the U.S. Congresswoman representing the 6th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1979, to January 3, 1993.

Born Beverly Barton Butcher in Baltimore, she grew up in Washington, D.C., graduating from the National Cathedral School in Washington, DC, in 1950 and earned a two-year degree from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland in 1962. She married Goodloe Edgar Byron in 1952, participating in his successful campaigns for the Maryland legislature, where he served in the house of delegates from 1963 to 1967 and the senate from 1967 to 1971. In 1970 she helped Goodloe Byron run a successful campaign for a U.S. House seat that encompassed western Maryland. During her husband’s tenure as a Representative, she worked closely with him, even debating his opponents on occasion when his official duties prevented district visits. After his death a month before the general election in 1978, Beverly Byron was pressured by local Democratic leaders to replace her husband on the ballot.

Representative Beverly Byron earned a reputation as a conservative Democrat who voted for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administration policies, frequently breaking ranks with moderate and liberal Democrats on both fiscal and social issues. She opposed a national health care system and a woman’s right to seek an abortion except in extreme cases where the mother’s life was in danger. In 1981 she was one of only two Democrats from outside the deep South in the House to support President Reagan’s budget. She was particularly focused on military and national security issues. She chaired the House Special Panel on Arms Control and Disarmament from 1983 to 1986, and backed the development of the MX Missile. Byron was defeated in the 1992 Democratic primary by a somewhat more liberal challenger, State Delegate Thomas Hattery, who in turn lost to Republican nominee Roscoe Bartlett in the general election.

After Congress, Beverly Byron returned to Frederick, Maryland, with her second husband, B. Kirk Walsh, and served on the board of directors for a major defense contractor. In 1995 President William J. (Bill) Clinton appointed her to the Naval Academy Board of Visitors. Four years later, Byron became a member of the Board of Regents for the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.