Berniece Florence Cramer, the daughter of William Joseph and Anna Marie (Jensen) Cramer, was born on February 12, 1922 at Hardy, Nebraska. She passed away on August 17, 2010 at the Brookestone Meadows, Elkorn, Nebraska at the age of 88 years, 6 months and 5 days.

Berniece was the eldest daughter of six children. She graduated from Hardy High School in 1940. She attended Kearney State Teachers College and completed nurses training from the Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in September 1944. After graduation she joined the US Army Nursing Corp. She served in the Philippine Islands and Japan (1945-1948). After her service she returned to college to earn Baccalaureate and Masters degrees from Hastings College, and Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City. Later she earned a Certificate in Nurse-Midwifery after study at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and Graduate School of Nursing at New York Medical College in New York. To further her nursing career she also attended the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

She served as an instructor-supervisor at Cornell University, New York City, a total of six years, during which time she also served as an instructor of Nurse-Midwifery at New York Medical College. For nine years she held positions with the U.S. Agency for International Development as Advisor in Maternity Care, Public Health Nursing and Nursing Education in Guatemala, Ecuador and as a Regional Advisor in all the countries of Central America and Panama in a Mobile Rural Health Program. She lived in Guatemala City, Ecuador, Honduras, and El Salvador.

From 1968-1990 she served again with the federal government in the Chicago Regional Office of the U.S. Public Health Service, first as the Maternal and Child Health Regional Nurse Consultant, and subsequently as Branch Chief. As Branch Chief she was responsible for implementing and administering the MCH, Family Planning and Head Start health activities in the six-state area.

She retired from federal service in 1990, but continued to lecture in the Community Health Science Program at the School of Public Health, the University of Illinois. She took full retirement in 1992. As was her plan, she moved closer to family in June, 2009 due to her failing health.

Although Berniece traveled extensively she called Chicago her home. She returned to Nebraska whenever she could to visit her mother and sisters. She competed in ballroom dancing as a hobby and love the Arts and Nature. She was a very giving and caring person. She always encouraged her nieces and nephews of the importance of education and family.

Berniece was preceded in death by her parents and one sister Marilyn Cramer. She is survived by two older brothers Rober Lundi Cramer of Lubbock, Texas; Willam Bruce Cramer of Lynnewood, Washington; and two younger sisters; Lois B. Grueber of Mitchell, Nebraska and Margaret Kinyoun and husband Dale of Superior, Nebraska and many nieces, nephews and friends.

Family graveside services at Hardy, Nebraska will be held at a later date..

Condolences may be sent to Megrue-Price Funeral Home, PO Box 282, Superior, NE 68978 or in care of www.pricefuneralhomes.com

Megrue-Price Funeral of Superior, Nebraska was in charge of the arrangements.