Betty Cooke, the Baltimore jewelry designer whose work has been displayed in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Boston’s Museum of Fine Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art, died Tuesday at 100 years old. Her passing was confirmed by The Village of Cross Keys, the North Baltimore retail center where Cooke ran a jewelry and design shop, The Store Ltd., for nearly six decades.
“For those who didn’t have the privilege of knowing her, Betty was a true icon in the world of jewelry design and art and she created a legacy that will live long beyond her time with us,” a memorial post on the Cross Keys Instagram page says. Born in 1924, Cooke’s interest in art was piqued early when she accompanied her father to Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park for nature painting sessions at 10 years old. She began working with sterling silver and brass after receiving a scholarship to MICA, then called the Maryland Institute, in the 1940s.
“I liked the feel of metal,” she told the Sun in 2021 , “the different colors.” After graduation, Cooke opened her first business, The Shop, in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood. In 1965, James Rouse, the developer of the Village of Cross Keys, convinced her to move the business to his shopping center, and she renamed it The Store Ltd.
The shop was a collaboration with her husband, William O. Steinmetz, with whom she also founded an interior design firm. Though Cooke was renowned in the city for her distinctive jewelry, which featured clean lines and a sculptural, geometric style, it took longer for her to catch the art world’s eye.
“If Betty had lived in another city, I believe she would have gotten a great deal more recognition,” Fred Lazarus IV, the former president of MICA, told the Sun in 2021. That year, the Walters Art Museum put a spotlight on Cooke’s work with “Betty Cooke: The Circle & The Line,” a retrospective exhibit featuring more than 160 pieces of her jewelry. “Betty’s work has incredible finesse and delicacy,” the museum’s director, Julia Marciari-Alexander said at the time.
“She makes tiny, beautiful little pieces that belies the hard, hard work that goes into making them.” The post on the Village of Cross Keys’ Instagram said Cooke’s remaining pieces, and other merchandise at The Store Ltd., will be available to purchase as the shop “begins to wind down operations.
” Information about a funeral service is forthcoming, the post said. Baltimore Sun reporter Mary McCauley contributed to this article..
