Maureen “Skippy” Barbara Braman

Published 10:31 am Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Proud and beloved mom with a progeny of 20, died on May 11, Mother’s Day, in Delray Beach, FL, age 97. Maureen “Skippy” Barbara Braman just graduated Minneapolis North High School when she went to a party and met Bert Gordon,  U of Minnesota freshman with a great sense of humor. Both were smitten. But Bert’s father soon requested he leave school to run the family’s small town electrical appliance biz 100 miles away. Skippy married him at age 18, accepting his promise they wouldn’t stay long in rural Albert Lea, pop. 17,000.  By 1952, she had delivered the first three of four boys. She doted on all of them, fanning every spark of interest and raising them as Jews, as did a dozen other Jewish families in the lake community.  Skippy inculcated her constant pursuit of intellectual stimulation in her kids and soon emerged as a voice in the town. She was president of the League of Women Voters chapter, taught synchronized swimming, raised $1 million for a new YMCA, and pioneered trips to D.C. and New York for local high school students. Her inner drive to express herself was fed with the creation of Lea College at the town’s edge. She enrolled in its theatre and art classes and won parts as a witch in  Macbeth and as Grandma in Edward Albee’s” The American Dream”.  She painted.  She was a prolific (if not oft-published) poet and novelist.  In 1979, Bert kept his promise, and the couple retired to Naples, FL. Two blood diseases took his life in 1991, and Skippy lived the rest of her years in Naples and Delray Beach, always in touch with her loving family. She is survived by sons Steve (Nancy), Greg (Lisa), Jeff (Sheryl) and Scott (Terri), eight grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

Funeral Services were held Thursday, May 15 at Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka.

Shiva was Sunday May 18, at Adath Jeshurun Congregation.

Memorials preferred to Bert and Maureen Gordon Camp Scholarship fund at Adath Jeshurun Congregation, Minneapolis JFCS Mental Health Education Conference, NPR, or donor’s choice.