Sara Cram Bittenbender died Friday, April 22, 2016, at Brookhaven in Lexington. She was 97.

The funeral will be at 10:00 am, Thursday, May 12, at the Church of Our Redeemer (Episcopal), 6 Meriam St., Lexington, followed by a reception at the church and 1:30 pm burial at Newton Cemetery. All are welcome; hats encouraged in her honor.

The widow of Robert Austin Bittenbender who died in 1970, she was the daughter of Robert Jackson Cram and Constance Southworth Cram.

She leaves a daughter, Sandra S. Bittenbender of Natick; a son, Robert Piehler Bittenbender and his wife Margaret Huber of Windham, Maine; a granddaughter, Constance S. Ferguson and her husband Brian A. Ferguson of Framingham; two great-grandchildren, Olivia Sara and Jackson Brian Ferguson; and a number of nieces and nephews.

She grew up in Waban and graduated from Newton High School in 1936 followed by a year at the Northfield School and another at Pierce Secretarial School in Boston. She was active in the Parish of the Good Shepherd in Waban.

Her household provided homes for a succession of dogs and cats, and a monkey that her brother hosted unexpectedly. She brought several dogs home by train from the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

After marriage in 1940 she moved to Buffalo with her husband, an engineer at Curtiss Wright. They returned to Massachusetts after World War II, living in Waban until the mid-1950's when they moved to Lexington.

From the late 1960's until retirement in 1984 she worked at MIT Instrumentation Lab and its successor entity, Draper Laboratory. Active in reunion planning for her husband's MIT class of 1940, she was made an Honorary Alumni Association member in 2010.

An avid figure skater, she continued cross-country skiing into her 80's. She enjoyed strolling around Meriam Hill where she resided until moving to Brookhaven in 2007. In her spare time, she wrote touching and silly poems for all occasions, on request at a moment's notice.

At the Church of Our Redeemer, she took charge of Soup Luncheons known far and wide, all proceeds helping the hungry homeless of Greater Lexington. Her Shepherd's Pie always garnered applause when she served it at Bristol Lodge in Waltham. She was also the central labor force behind church rummage sales which were eventually named in her honor.

Besides her husband and parents, Mrs. Bittenbender was predeceased by her brother, Robert Jackson Cram Jr. and her nephew Nicholas Cooper Cram.

Notable ancestors include Constant Southworth, a prominent figure in the Plymouth Colony; Josiah Bartlett, physician and second signer of the Declaration of Independence; Native American, Polly Dockum of New Hampshire and Oliver Cromwell.

In lieu of flowers, donations of remembrance may be made to the Animal Rescue League of Boston; Parish of the Good Shepherd in Waban, Church of Our Redeemer in Lexington, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School in Waltham.