Once you were in Beverly Byron’s orbit, you were there for life.

Frederick County Councilmember M.C. Keegan-Ayer met the congresswoman in the early 1980s working as a staffer on Capitol Hill. Keegan-Ayer’s husband worked for Byron and the pair had been on many trips with the lawmaker, a common experience for those in Byron’s life.

By 1990, Keegan-Ayer was a first-time mother who had just quit a job that gave her too little time for her growing family. Byron had other plans. She wanted Keegan-Ayer on her campaign team.

The congresswoman rented an office with a room in the back so Keegan-Ayer could comfortably bring her baby to work. Herself a mother of three, Byron encouraged Keegan-Ayer to work whatever hours suited her best.

“I thought, wow, there are not many people who would do that,” Keegan-Ayer said. “With Mrs. Byron, once you’re a staffer, you’re always a staffer. She would pull us back in.”

The occupants of Byron’s vast orbit recalled her fondly this week. The former U.S. representative died Feb. 9 at her home in Frederick of heart failure. She was 92.

Born Beverly Barton Butcher on July 27, 1932, in Baltimore, Byron became almost immediately acquainted with political life. Her father, Harry Butcher, managed a CBS radio station in Washington and served as a naval aide to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower.

In 1952, she married Goodloe Byron, himself the scion of a political family. Both parents served in Congress. As he embarked on bids for the Maryland legislature and U.S. House of Representatives, Beverly Byron organized his campaigns and prepped him for debates, her family recalled. He represented Western Maryland’s 6th Congressional District from 1971 until his sudden death in 1978.

It came as little surprise to family and friends when Byron stepped forward to succeed her husband. Mary Byron Kunst, Byron’s youngest child, was just 13 at the time but recalled it felt right.

“Even though she had no formal legislative experience, everybody knew her determination and her ability to organize,” Kunst said. “Everybody knew that was the right move for her.”

Like her late husband, Byron was a lover of the outdoors and her legislative efforts reflected it. She sponsored a rails-to-trails bill designed to expand hiking and recreation trails across the country. She was a fierce promoter of national parks, particularly those in her district, and led her family, friends and staff on hikes on the Appalachian Trail and whitewater rafting adventures.

Keegan-Ayer recalled one trip to Garrett County when Byron was introducing Barbara Mikulski, then a candidate for U.S. Senate, to voters. The night before the annual Autumn Glory Festival, Mikulski, Byron, Keegan-Ayer and her husband crowded into a cabin in the remote Herrington Manor State Park.

“Mrs. Byron was very comfortable,” Keegan-Ayer recalled, chuckling. “Barbara Mikulski, not so much.”

“She was outdoorsy and I was indoorsy,” Mikulski said this week in a statement heralding Byron’s commitment to Western Maryland. “We made a perfect combination.”

Byron took a keen interest in the military. She led the Military Personnel and Compensation Subcommittee of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee — the first woman to hold the position. It took her to new heights and locales. Byron flew in an SR-71 Blackbird, sailed on military ships and rode in tanks as she visited U.S. service members, family and staff recalled.

As her congressional exploits unfolded, Byron’s children were along for the ride. Kunst recalled accompanying her mother on an Interior Committee trip and going horseback riding.

“I got to christen a ship,” Kunst said. “How many people can say that?”

Later, she delighted in the arrival of her seven grandchildren and relished watching their careers blossom, said granddaughter Mollie Byron, who followed her grandmother into public service and works for Gov. Wes Moore. The congresswoman was the center of the family, she recalled, drawing the group together for holidays when she adorned every present with a distinct red yarn that she demanded back once they were opened.

“She had a lot of folks around her in elected office, and yet we were able to have that type of family connection,” Mollie Byron said. “She was really proud that she got to do that.”

A conservative Democrat whom family members characterized as “old school,” Byron got mixed marks on women’s issues. She quit the Congressional Women’s Caucus after objecting to a change in bylaws but ultimately voted for the Equal Rights Amendment — a decision she made the day of the vote. She backed legislation allowing women to serve as combat pilots.

Byron’s tenure in Congress lasted until she was defeated in the 1992 Democratic primary by the more liberal Tom Hattery, who ultimately lost the race to Republican Roscoe Bartlett. She remained active, serving on numerous boards and working with groups including the American Association of University Women’s ElectHER initiative, which supports women running for office.

Byron was remembered as a mentor this week on the floor of the Maryland Senate.

“What she told women is to have confidence in yourself and to fight for what you believe in,” said state Sen. Karen Lewis Young, who represents Frederick County. “And she set the example more than four decades ago to show that you could combine a career and a family, even as a single parent.”

Friends and family said Byron remained active in politics through the final weeks of her life, campaigning for now U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks and U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney, who represents the same congressional district that Byron once did. Byron didn’t just campaign from home, she worked rooms, Keegan-Ayer said.

Delaney, the first woman to represent the district since Byron, paid tribute to her in a statement, uplifting her “piercing intellect, dry humor, dogged persistence, long public service and her big heart.”

“God bless you, Bev, for a life well lived in purpose and community, and a light for all to see,” Delaney said.