Obituaries : Flora Kramer; Amateur Radio Operator

Flora Kramer, an expert ham radio operator and embroiderer, died of leukemia Saturday at her Ojai home. She was 89.

Kramer was born April 25, 1907, in Springfield, Mo. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1934 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. After spending years as an accountant, she quit to raise her family.

In the mid-1960s Kramer embarked on a second career in nursing and worked for more than 20 years before retiring in 1980.

She moved to Ojai 11 years ago from Annapolis, Md., to be near her son, Craig Johnson of Ojai.

An amateur radio operator for more than 36 years, Kramer received the highest license classification awarded by the Federal Communications Commission in 1992 at the age of 85.

Kramer--whose ham radio designation was W0RLR-- had friends all over the world as a result of her hobby, Johnson said. One of them, a man from Osaka, Japan, plans to attend her memorial service later this week.

Johnson said his mother got interested in ham radio by listening to his older brother, Stephen Johnson.

“What it came down to is my father bet her $5 she couldn’t get her license,” he said. “So she took up that challenge and got her license. At first, she primarily used Morse code almost exclusively--she didn’t think that women’s voices sounded ‘right’ on the air--but finally broke down and got a microphone and started talking to people.”

A qualified machine embroidery instructor, she was a member of the California Assn. of Machine Embroidery for more than a decade.

Kramer was an active member of the Ojai Valley Women’s Club and attended Ojai United Methodist Church.

Her first husband, Paul M. Johnson, died in 1964, and a son, Malcolm Johnson, died in 1976. Some 15 years after her first husband died, she married a second time, to an old college sweetheart, Milton Kramer, who died in 1983.

In addition to her two sons Stephen and Craig, survivors include step-sons Kenneth Kramer of Bethesda, Md., and Richard Kramer of Potomac, Md., step-daughter Carol Sacks of Marietta, Ga., and 10 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at United Methodist Church, with Rev. Robert Underwood officiating. Interment will be at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Ill.

Memorial donations may be sent to Help of Ojai Inc., P.O. Box 621, Ojai, CA 93024

Arrangements are by Clausen Funeral Home, Ojai.