Betty Cooke’s 100th Birthday – Sign the Giant Card

The Village of Cross Keys is hosting a giant birthday card to celebrate Baltimore icon Betty Cooke’s 100^th birthday.

The public to come by and add a greeting to the card.

Located in the West Courtyard near Easy Like Sunday

10am – 6pm daily through Sunday, May 5, 2024

Betty Cooke is a Baltimore icon renowned for her pure, geometric jewelry design. Betty was born in Baltimore on May 5, 1924. She began to learn jewelry making at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), from which she received a BFA in 1946 and where she taught for 22 years.

In 1955, Cooke and Bill Steinmetz married and worked together as designers on projects including a restaurant, a church, and an innovative chain of bowling lanes. Cooke and Steinmetz opened The Store Ltd in 1965, becoming one of the first tenants in Cross Keys. The Store Ltd has been a mainstay of the Village Shops since that time.

Cooke’s jewelry designs have been featured in Vogue, in an exhibition at The Walters Art Museum, and in books and fashions shows. Betty is the recipient of two Diamonds Today awards from DeBeers and was made a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 1996.

The card was generously designed by Ellen Lupton & Jennifer Tobias of MICA where Ellen is the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair.