On a sunny April Saturday, The Village of Cross Keys courtyard showcases many colorful signs and an enormous card, each celebrating the 100th birthday of renowned designer and jeweler Betty Cooke.
Her store, The Store Ltd, was among the first to open in Jim Rouse’s 1965 discreet and modern shopping center on Falls Road. Designed by Ellen Lupton, the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and Jennifer Tobias, the festive card is filled with heartfelt messages. “You’re a legend, Betty Cooke,” says one in red ink.
Indeed, she is. Many celebrations are planned to honor her. On the afternoon of May 4, well-wishers are invited to say “Happy Birthday” to Betty at The Store Ltd. On May 5, Cooke’s actual birthday, a private event is scheduled at the home of a MICA trustee. On May 6 the gigantic card is being presented at 11:30 a.m. in The Village of Cross Keys.
And on May 10 MICA again plans to fete Cooke, again by invitation, as part of the annual ARTWALK featuring the work of graduating seniors. “Guests will include many people from the community who have been touched by Betty Cooke’s career as an artist, alum of MICA and as an advocate of many community projects in Baltimore,” says Don Jones, Vice President for Advancement at MICA.
We at Baltimore Fishbowl featured Cooke, among others, last year in our 9 Over 90 series, which showcased their work that continues to improve Baltimore. At the time, the then-98-year-old Cooke shared her pathway to jewelry-making; how she taught — and married — her late husband Bill Steinmetz; and how she hopes to continue making jewelry to be enjoyed for generations.
Over the course of her decades-long career, Cooke made many jewelry pieces for Rouse, the Village of Cross Keys developer, to give to his wife Patty to mark birthdays and anniversaries. She and Steinmetz also operated multiple stores, including one at Harborplace for a time as an original merchant in the Pratt Street Pavilion.
Cooke even had a retrospective exhibition at the Walters Art Museum, which featured pieces throughout the Baltimore-based jewelry designer’s career.
Now we’re choosing Betty Cooke as we kick off a robust and occasional series featuring vibrant centenarians. Here are a few new questions for her, as well as a reprise of last year’s piece.
How will you celebrate your 100th?
Have you seen the giant card in the courtyard? The graphics are beautiful, done by MICA.
There are going to be some grand parties, and there’s going to be a celebration at The Store Ltd too. It will be wonderful, because there will be all these nice people on Saturday, May 4 in the afternoon. People can stop by.
Any wisdom to share that you’ve learned from a century of life:
Just keep doing what you love to do.
What’s your biggest satisfaction?
Every day.
Any regrets?
No regrets!
What’s on tap for this year?
Continue in my grand style [She chuckles.] my work and my life.
I definitely want to thank everybody: all the friends and family and customers that make my life very satisfying.
Editor’s note: Below is Cooke’s section in our 9 Over 90 series, published in March 2023. Click on the following links to read parts 1, 2, and 3 of that series.
Betty Cooke
D.O.B. May 5, 1924; Baltimore, MD
Education:
Maryland Institute College of Art and Johns Hopkins University, B.F.A.
Career, present and past:
Baltimore’s internationally famous designer and jeweler, Betty Cooke comes into her Cross Keys store, The Store LTD, from her longtime Riderwood home six days a week. She lives independently in the house where she and her late husband, Bill Steinmetz, raised their son. “We lost our son when he was 28,” she says. Then in 2016, she lost her husband, but Cooke continues to do what she’s always done: make jewelry and run her store.
“My garden falls apart,” she says. “My store is my garden.” There she continues to design the jewelry and oversees each piece. As for other items at her store: clothing, leather goods, accessories, china, glassware, etc., Cooke curates each selection. “Good design is timeless,” says the 98-year-old, who herself seems timeless.
As a Girl Scout growing up in the Walbrook neighborhood of Baltimore City, Betty Cooke learned how to work with metal, wood, fabric and clay. “I stuck with metal.” After graduating from Western High School, she studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in a joint program with Johns Hopkins University. She then taught for 22 years at the Institute, as it was called then. In one of her classes, “Design and Materials,” she met Bill Steinmetz. He was a veteran, and she was his teacher. They each had a small place on Tyson Street and began dating. After marrying in 1955, they set up a partnership, Cooke & Steinmetz Designers and Consultants. For an early project, Mishanton’s restaurant in East Baltimore, their style and modernist lines incorporated the avant-garde Bertoia and Eames furniture. They also designed 26 Fair Lanes bowling centers throughout the country, using their clean, colorful signature to elevate the spaces.
“We did this for 20 years, but we also painted and won awards in the Baltimore Museum of Art and Peale Museum shows. I was always doing the jewelry,” says Cooke.
In 1965 they moved their business to the new Village of Cross Keys, where The Store LTD was among the first shops to open. “I had known Jim Rouse [the developer]. He came into the Tyson Street store, and we’d done some detailing for him at Mondawmin [shopping mall] and design work on Talbot Town [an early Eastern Shore shopping center], as well as his Christmas cards.”
The jewelry collection Cooke designed for Rouse personally over decades became one of the largest commissioned bodies of her work. It was featured in “Betty Cooke: The Circle & the Line,” a 2021 Walters Art Museum retrospective. In addition to private collections worldwide, Cooke’s jewelry is in collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt, Cranbrook Art Museum, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Arts and Design, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Rhode Island School of Design Museum and The Walters Art Museum.
About her artistic contribution, Cooke says, “This kind of jewelry is special; you’d call it art jewelry. There is a personal relationship, and I’ve made so many people happy. Jewelry can do that. There are always more ideas, more approaches. It would be a pleasure to see it all come together.”
Key to the longevity of engagement:
I never think of stopping…. The people have been a big part of it. I wasn’t sure there was an end to me. There’s always a vision. Designs come to mind, and the act of design is important. It’s a very personal thing. It gives me great pleasure. When I see a piece come in on a young person, I’m happy. The fact that it has gone on for generations now, since the ‘40s … all of a sudden it’s a long time.
Current challenge: At my age, I just want to get everything finished that I want to do…a lot of new pieces. There’s a saying, ‘You’ll never finish everything.’ But I hope to.
Betty Cook is a part of Baltimore. There should be a statue dedicated to her.