[2][3] Butcher graduated from the National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington in 1950, and later earned a two-year degree from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland in 1962.

Recalling her husband's sudden death and her subsequent elevation to office, she later reflected, "Within 24 hours I was a widow, a single parent, unemployed and a candidate for Congress".

In 1987, she became chairwoman of the Military Personnel and Compensation Subcommittee, beating out the decisively liberal Pat Schroeder, the preferred choice of Armed Services Committee chairman Les Aspin.

[1] Byron was defeated in the 1992 Democratic primary by a somewhat more liberal challenger, State Delegate Thomas Hattery, who in turn lost to Republican nominee Roscoe Bartlett in the general election.

[1] In 1986, she married B. Kirk Walsh, who had worked as an official in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development; he died in 2019.