Artist and jewelry designer Betty Cooke was remembered on Monday for introducing a modern sense of style and design to Baltimore and believing in “the power of art to inspire.”
Nearly 100 people gathered at Ruck’s Funeral Home in Towson to celebrate the life of Betty Cooke, who died on August 13 at the age of 100. The viewing before the memorial service had the tone of a respectful cocktail party, with many of the guests wearing pieces of jewelry that Cooke designed. If they weren’t wearing jewelry she designed, they likely were admiring one of the pieces someone else wore.
“I’m sure many of you have been on an airplane or somewhere and you see her jewelry and you’d go up and say, ‘I love that, that’s Betty Cooke,’ “ said Chris Gaeng, one of Cooke’s nephews and a speaker at the memorial service. “Just the warmth that it gave you, to say that you had something from Betty. Not many of us have that impact on people. And it wasn’t about the jewelry. It was the fact that Betty did it.”
Cooke’s impact as an artist spread far beyond Baltimore, said Jo Schneider, a sculptor, architect and longtime family friend.
“She had a belief in the power of art to inspire, to bring joy into people’s lives, and to bring people together,” Schneider said. “The number of people Betty touched in her life is just extraordinary.”
When Cooke and her late husband Bill Steinmetz opened The Store Ltd at the Village of Cross Keys in 1965, they introduced many Baltimoreans to a new design esthetic, Schneider said.
“Betty and Bill brought to Baltimore and The Store Ltd a unique, modern, sophisticated, international sense of style and design,” Schneider said. “This was new to Baltimore. They were the ones that introduced it, which was amazing…She was an influence on the Modern movement in art.”
In 2021, Schneider noted, the Walters Art Museum underscored Cooke’s influence when it presented “Betty Cooke: The Circle and the Line,” a retrospective of her career as a jewelry designer. It was “a rare, one-woman show of a living artist,” Schneider said. “They rarely show living artists, and it highlighted Betty’s lifetime journey as a jeweler.”
At The Store Ltd, “people were seeing things that they had never seen,” agreed Michael Ruddie, the store’s longtime manager and one of its buyers. “She brought a whole different genre into our midst.”
While Cooke is known nationally for her jewelry design and many of her pieces are in the collections of major museums around the country, she was gratified just by seeing people wearing the jewelry she designed, Ruddie said.
“One almost feels like Betty was happier seeing her jewelry on people than behind the glass in a museum,” he said. “When people asked, ‘How do I keep this clean?’ [she replied] ‘Wear it! Put it on!’ She loved to see her work.”
Besides being a “brilliant designer,” he said, “her craftsmanship was amazing. When you look at the detail and the level of finish that she was able to create, it was amazing”
True to her values
In addition to presenting jewelry that Cooke designed and made, The Store Ltd features a curated collection of goods by others, including clothing, handbags, accessories, home décor and other items – all selected with Cooke’s approval.
Ruddie told a story that showed how much Cooke stayed true to her values and vision as a retailer. He said he once ordered certain merchandise for the store, which he didn’t describe, and it “flew out the door.” But when he asked Cooke if she wanted to sign for another order, she declined even though there was every indication it would have sold just as well.
“She said, ‘Do I have to sign that?’ “ he recalled, referring to the purchase order he prepared. “I said, ‘It’s your store’…She said, ‘Well, let’s not get them. I didn’t like them.’ So having worked for other people, I realized I was somewhere different. It didn’t matter if it was going to bring the next fortune through. If she didn’t like it, it was not presented in her store, which is a rare thing. And she worked very, very hard to have that ability.”
Though Cooke was a pioneer as a woman artist-turned-entrepreneur, she wasn’t an advocate, Ruddie said.
“Betty never talked about [her business] as women’s lib — as trying to, you know, bring women forward,” he said. “She simply wanted to do what she wanted to do.”
Several of the speakers marveled at Cooke’s longevity, coming into the store and creating jewelry up until her death.
Ruddie said she was encouraged and energized that customers kept coming to the store after she turned 100 on May 5.
“Even in her final months, so much comfort was brought to her by all of you who came into the store just to see everything still happening,” he said.
A zest for life
What was Cooke’s secret to living to 100? Family members and friends said she had a zest for life, and being around people, that kept her going.
“What made Betty get up and go to work every day was everybody here,” Chris Gaeng said. Also, “Betty didn’t believe that she was going to die.”
“She and Bill were people people,” said Scheider, Director of the Office of Architecture for the Maryland Aviation Administration. “They attended every party, every art opening, every event that came up anywhere. I couldn’t keep up with them. Nobody could keep up with them.”
Schneider said she once came across a message in Cooke’s house that a friend had left. “What it said was: Get up every day and live it like it was your last. And that’s surely how Betty lived her life.”
She also loved outdoor adventures, from camping on Assateague Island to birding on Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania, Schneider said.
“The adventures we had with them were magical because everything we did with Betty and Bill was magical,” she said. “A great love of nature was really at Betty’s core and inside of her being.”
She was determined “to keep going, no matter what,” said Rebecca Schneider, Cooke’s goddaughter and Jo’s sister. “She never gave up. She kept going. She was always optimistic. She didn’t get cynical. She always had that incredible, childlike love and wonder of nature.”
She was “always on the move, constantly busy,” said a niece, Mary Pat Gaeng.
At parties, she was “always dressed to the nines, the coolest outfits. I would always tell my friends, my aunt at 90 is hipper than I will ever be…Her social life was busier than most people half her age. She would never turn down an invitation.”
Several years ago, “she flew all the way to Denver not to miss [a wedding],” her niece said. “And then when she was there she went on a hike with my son-in-law in Colorado at 90-some years old. She would not miss it.”
Cooke and Steinmetz had one son, Daniel, who passed away in 1982. Bill Steinmetz died in 2016. The gathering took place in a room filled with photos of Cooke and her family and friends through the years. Her casket was made of unvarnished pine, and the service was standing room only.
The turnout is “a great tribute to Betty,” Chris Gaeng said. “I know she wishes she were here.”
One secret to Cooke’s longevity is that “she lived and enjoyed life to the fullest,” Mary Pat Gaeng said at the close of her remarks. “She was a true practicer of being present in the moment. She enjoyed bringing gifts for all occasions. So we can now reciprocate with a final gift to Betty: by being truly present in our daily lives in memory of her. We love you, Aunt Betty. Thanks for 100 years of your presence.”
