Obituary: Elizabeth "Betty" Jerome, founder of Teen Age Medical Services

When Elizabeth K. Jerome entered the field of adolescent health as a pediatrician in Minneapolis, she dispensed both hugs and lectures to her teen patients.

Both came in handy when she helped found Teen Age Medical Services (TAMS), a pioneering adolescent health outpost in the Phillips neighborhood, and served for 22 years as its medical director.

"She gave a great gift to the teenagers of this city," said Catherine Jordan, who once worked at TAMS and grew close to Jerome, who died Feb. 2 in New York City at 93 after suffering from Alzheimer's.

"She was a very feisty, no-nonsense West Virginia gal who came up in this rough-and-tumble world and made it to the high echelons of her profession."

Jerome was born in a coalfields town and acquired her social justice leanings early from her mother, a teacher, and her father, a civil engineer who became a mine inspector. Dyslexia kept her from reading full sentences until 10th grade when a librarian stayed after school to help her. Within six years, she'd moved from the University of West Virginia to the University of Illinois medical school in Chicago as part of an accelerated schedule to produce doctors during World War II.

When she began to practice in Minneapolis, she grew alarmed by the number of younger teens who came to her with pregnancies. "It made her cry, actually," said her daughter, Wendy Jerome, of Minneapolis.

Although TAMS provided a range of health services, it specialized in nonjudgmental reproductive health counseling for teens.

She also started a family of four children with a fellow doctor, Bourne Jerome, whom she wed in 1950. They met when she needed a date for a hospital dinner, and nurses hooked them up at 6 a.m. over the bed of a 7-year-old patient, her daughter said.

Jerome played a role in a landmark case that tested Minnesota's abortion ban, testifying on behalf of obstetrician Jane Hodgson, who had performed an illegal abortion for a mother of three who had contracted rubella, which Jerome testified was likely to cause birth defects. Hodgson was convicted, but the conviction was overturned after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade.

"Betty was one of the most passionate, honest and direct women I had ever met in my life," said City Council Member Lisa Goodman, a fellow abortion-rights advocate who said Jerome "taught me a lot about standing up for what I believe in."

Connie Perpich recalled a meeting she and other abortion rights advocates had long ago with a rural legislator, who asked them whether women got "prostrate cancer" like men. Jerome patiently explained the difference between male and female reproductive systems. The legislator then asked if there was a test for "prostrate cancer." Jerome matter-of-factly explained a digital rectal exam.

Aside from Jerome, Perpich said, "I don't think any of us could have handled it without breaking up."

Jerome was preceded in death by her husband, Bourne, and a son, Richard, of New York City. Besides daughter Wendy, she is survived by son Henry of St. Paul and daughter Heidi of New York City. A memorial service is planned for April 9 at 2 p.m. at First Unitarian Society, 900 Mount Curve Av., Minneapolis.