Dr. Genevieve "Genny" (Rummell) Cramer, 86, passed away on June 23, 2026, surrounded by her family. Genny was born on May 26, 1940, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to parents Milagros and Charles Rummell. Her family migrated to rural Kansas, where her parents worked in service industries, and she grew up in a house without many modern conveniences, including electricity. After graduating from Augusta High School, Genny left home for Emporia State University, where she planned to study education and become a teacher. In 1958, she met a young man near Wooster Lake Fountain on campus. She later bumped into him at the Hornets Nest dining hall. They began talking about the books they'd read, the music they listened to, and the art they loved, until the cafeteria closed and they had to move to the cafe at the train depot. And thus, a love story began that lasted nearly 70 years.

Genny and Carter Cramer were married January 24, 1959. One year later, their daughter Stephanie was born, and Genny began a teaching career that ranged from a one-room schoolhouse in Kansas, to classrooms in Colorado, to lecture halls in England and Russia, and changed the lives of thousands of students. She and Carter both began teaching at Southwest Missouri State University in 1966, the same year their second daughter, Megan, was born. After a brief absence to complete their Ph.D.s at the University of Illinois, Genny and Carter remained at SMSU until 2006, when the university had been renamed Missouri State. In 2009, the Board of Governors added Genny to the MSU Wall of Fame in recognition of her many accomplishments in research, teaching, and service.

She wrote books and traveled the world, spreading the gospel of literacy and the importance of reading, but mostly she gave herself passionately to her students and her community, teaching teachers, supporting artists, volunteering on several boards and at nonprofits like The Kitchen. After 2013, when their daughter Megan was killed in a restaurant explosion in Kansas City, Genny and Carter contributed to numerous progressive causes and LGBTQ organizations in honor of their daughter's life and legacy. She did all of this with an infectious kindness, a boundless joy, and a piercing commitment to love and justice.

Genny was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Charles Rummell, Jr., and her daughter, Megan Cramer. She is survived by her husband, Carter, and her daughter, Stephanie Cramer, both of Springfield; her granddaughter, August, of Boston, MA; sister, Ruth Hartman, of Norton, KS; sister-in-law, Lana Rummell, of Florida; and numerous other family members.

Memorial Service will be held at Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home on Monday, July 6, at 11:00AM. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Springfield Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association .