Lasting Memories

Marguerite Kramer
Oct. 4, 1931-Nov. 22, 2022
Palm Desert, CA

Marguerite Crabités Kramer, known to her friends as Petie, passed away at home in Palm Desert on November 22, 2022 at the age of 91 having lived a long and fulfilled life. Daughter of Henry and Frederica Crabités, Petie was born in New Orleans in 1931, grew up in Aldie, Virginia and received secretarial training at Mary Washington College. As a young woman she worked in Washington, D.C., married the late John J Kramer in 1954, living in Endicott, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Frankfort, Germany, Minneapolis and Atherton, California moving with her husband’s career in the burgeoning computer business. She worked for many years in the President’s Office and the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and retired in the late 1990s. Through mutual friends, she met widower Alan Stearns, with whom she traveled extensively and built a life together in Palm Desert and Catalina Island. Her spirited adventurousness led her around the world, and through many challenges. She was a figure skater, an avid skier, tennis player and rose gardener, an accomplished seamstress, she loved the stage, was always ready for the next dance, adored cats of all kinds, and generously expressed kindness to strangers. She put the best face on what it is to grow old, never losing her sense of humor, her empathic nature, or the glint in her eye when listening to Frank Sinatra. Her delight and fearlessness in going somewhere new is sure to carry her through her next journey, as it did on this one. She is survived by her son, Henry F Kramer, her daughter Karen L Kramer, their spouses who she cared for as a second mother, her granddaughter Katherine R Kramer, her partner Alan Stearns and her loving caretaker Julia Penunurizertuche. A memorial luncheon will be held this spring at The Lakes, Palm Desert.