Responsibility: It was a hallmark of Deloris Cram’s outlook as an educator, devoted family woman and local government watchdog.
“She was fun-loving, she enjoyed the outdoors, she always expected everyone to show our true character and be responsible in our lives,” Cram’s daughter, YuVonne Wehler, said. “She really looked out for her community.”
Cram, who died Dec. 18 at age 70, headed Canyon County Citizens for Responsible Government, which won the Idaho Newspaper Foundation’s Max Dalton Open Government Award in 2002. That year she launched the Treasure Valley’s first government watchdog blog, Canyon County Watch.
Feisty and funny, Cram tackled issues on all sorts of topics, including land use, stop signs and prosecutors’ handling of domestic violence. She quickly developed a reputation as a voracious researcher with a knack for holding political feet to the fire.
“We need people who are willing to be the watchdogs, take their own time and their own effort and make sure things are happening the way they should be,” said community activist Terri Ottens, who calls Cram a friend and mentor. “And that’s what she was for Canyon County.”
Cram expected responsibility and performance from her students, too, said Allison Westfall, who had her as a fifth-grade teacher at Nampa’s Centennial Elementary and as a sixth-grade reading teacher at Central Elementary.
“We filled out contracts for our work,” Westfall said. “She outlined what it took to get an A, a B or a C.
“You knew what was expected, and that was cool.”
After she learned Cram died, Westfall posted a brief description of Cram’s teaching style on Facebook.
“She had no tolerance for racial slurs, introduced us to Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen,’ and set high expectations for our work,” Westfall wrote. “She was one of those teachers you went back to visit.”
Many former students visited Cram in the hospital during her final months, Wehler said.
FAMILY AND OTHER VITAL CAUSES
Cram was passionate about many things, but none more so than her family: David, her husband of 52 years, daughter Wehler, son Zane Cram and four grandchildren.
“She truly based her whole life around the family unit,” Wehler said.
The Crams stayed close geographically as well as emotionally: Both of David and Deloris’s children live in homes adjacent to their parents’ house at the west Nampa intersection of Midway Road and Orchard Avenue.
A horrific accident at that intersection in the late 1990s helped propel Cram into activism.
In an interview in 2008, Cram said land-use and irrigation issues were what set her on the watchdog path. She recalled attending a county public hearing in 2000 about a massive subdivision near her home and growing disturbed that “we didn’t have our issues addressed nearly as well as the developers.”
RESEARCH AND IMPACT
She learned the ropes of community activism and became adept at public records requests and foraging for facts.
Those skills were a huge help to Ottens and others who strove to improve local handling of domestic violence cases after Angie Leon, a 21-year-old mother of three, was murdered by her estranged husband in May 2003. Despite numerous domestic violence charges and 25 violations of no-contact orders, a deputy county prosecutor had agreed to release Abel Leon from jail while he awaited sentencing for his latest crime.
Cram found damning documents and recordings from public meetings that contributed greatly to Ottens’ task force report and to the family’s successful civil suit against the county, Ottens said.
“She was a bulldog when it came to getting information,” she said, noting that Cram kept meticulous files and “read every single county meeting minutes, even when she was house-bound.”
Often ailing but indomitable, Cram was always willing to help out others pursuing information. Last spring, she sent a reporter documents at midnight after spending the day in dialysis.
“It is my strong belief that Canyon County government operates entirely differently than it did 10 years ago because of Deloris Cram,” Ottens said. “She let them know people were watching, and she let them know the people watching knew how to get the information and what to do with it.”
In Remembrance is a weekly profile on a Treasure Valley resident who has recently passed away. To recommend a friend or loved one for an In Remembrance, email newsroom@idahostatesman.com.
