A Promise Kept
Senator Cramer Delivers Irene Sprague’s Quilts to Washington
August 2026
Back in our November Beacon, we introduced you to Irene Sprague, a BEK Communications Cooperative member from Steele and one of North Dakota’s remaining Rosie the Riveters. In April, as part of her 100th birthday celebration, Irene was honored with the Gold Medal of Honor at a special ceremony attended by U.S. Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer and North Dakota National Guard Adjutant General Mitch Johnson. Letters of tribute poured in from Governor Kelly Armstrong, U.S. Representative Julie Fedorchak, President Donald Trump, and Vice President JD Vance. And the birthday celebration began with a personal phone call from President Donald Trump, a remarkable outpouring of recognition for a woman whose hands helped build the tools of victory during World War II.
In the months leading up to her birthday, Irene pieced together handmade quilts for each of the dignitaries who honored her, including one for President Trump and one for Vice President Vance. The quilts were on display at her birthday celebration and medal ceremony, a room full of colorful, carefully stitched tributes to the people who had taken the time to honor a rural North Dakota woman’s wartime service.
Two of those quilts, though, had a much longer journey ahead of them than the rest. Because President Trump and Vice President Vance live and work more than 1,600 miles away in Washington, D.C., Senator Cramer offered to carry their quilts back with him personally, rather than trust them to the mail. He made Eileen a promise that day: he would hand-deliver each quilt himself.
It’s the kind of promise that would be easy to let slide amid the business of Washington. Senator Cramer didn’t let it slide. He followed through, personally delivering Vice President Vance’s quilt, along with a handwritten card from Irene, directly to him.
Irene’s quilt for President Trump is still expected to make its way to the White House.
BEK Communications Cooperative is proud to call Eileen Sprague a member, and prouder still to share her story, a reminder that the threads connecting our small communities to the wider world are sometimes sewn by hand, one careful stitch at a time.
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