October 28, 2021
Written by Linda Goodrick

Life was sunshine and fun for Cherie growing up in Seattle. Her only sibling, Elizabeth was 30 years older and was like a second mother, who called her, “my little darling”. Cherie was the family’s gift since her mother was in her 50’s when she was born. The family hailed from Georgia where Cherie’s mother, born in 1902 had picked cotton and helped her mother do laundry for the white people as she was growing up. The military moved Elizabeth and her husband to Fort Lawton and later she needed an operation and asked her mother for help, so the family uprooted and resettled here. Her dad got a job as a night watchman and faced new prejudices in Seattle. Native Americans could not be served alcohol in the early 1940’s and being half Cherokee and looking more Cherokee than Black, he couldn’t go out and be served a social drink without presenting his driver’s license identifying him as Negro. The African Americans and Native Americans have always mixed naturally in the south.

Cherie uses African American and Black interchangeably, but prefers African American since it describes her ancestry. Cherie grew up in Hiawatha Place near the Foremost Dairy at the edge of the Central Area in a mixed neighborhood of Asians, Blacks, Native Americans and Catholics. Her father only had a 4th grade education but advised Cherie not to be an “educated fool” because schools only teach about slavery and the cotton gin and don’t teach how much African Americans have contributed to our culture. He told her about Othello, the Moor (also a street in Seattle) and about Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (1877-1963) inventor of the three-position traffic signal and a smoke hood, the predecessor of the gas mask, who built a successful company of hair straightening solution and hair care products in Cleveland, Ohio.

Cherie didn’t experience racism growing up but got her rude awakening at Franklin High School in 1968 when she told her counselor that she loved the Arts but didn’t want to be “a starving artist”, she would like to be an interior designer. The middle-aged, female counselor said she would be good at that but couldn’t be successful “because the people who could afford to hire you wouldn’t want you in their homes telling them what to do.” It was the first time she learned that limitations exist for a black person. Fortunately this emotional set back did not deter her from continuing her education. Cherie started in the Early Childhood Education Program at North Seattle Community College where they had a pilot program of working with kids as they and the teachers learned together. She taught 3 years at University Congregational Church and then decided she needed more education and enrolled at U.W. where she discovered another artistic love, musical theater. Cherie has a 5 octave voice and currently sings in the Mount Zion Church Choir, at weddings, funerals and varied events. Her secret desire is to play the piano as well, so watch for that artistic endeavor to be mastered in Cherie’s future.

Contemporaneously, the Vietnam War was raging and the Civil Rights movement was spreading, making it similar to the civil unrest and awakening we are living now. She became more politically involved at U.W. and earned a student grant as one of two students from Seattle to attend a Conference at Harvard in Boston on Desegregation and Racism in the Education System. Unrelated but a fun outlet for her, was the modeling work she did in her spare time.

Covid-19 couldn’t have come at a worse time for Cherie because she’d been going through chemo and radiation treatments but she recently was able to get her first two vaccinations. Her family is small but fortunately near and conscientious. Her son lives in Bothell and her daughter lives around the corner, so she can enjoy her 6 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild as they grow up.

Cherie believes strongly in the Second Amendment, her father kept an unloaded shotgun in the closet to protect the family but would never let Cherie shoot it, because he said with parental caution, “it will dislocate your shoulder”. What she doesn’t understand today is why high capacity weapons and ammunition should be available: “restrictions are needed to control gun sales and to keep them out of the hands of kids, the mentally ill and where ever there is domestic violence.” And she worries that gun safety and storage are not a priority for everyone.

In 2018 Winona Hollins Hague invited Cherie to her first GAGV meeting and to the Diversity and Inclusion committee that Winona chaired. Cherie is now the committee chair of Diversity and Partnerships and serves on the GAGV Board as the Vice-chair. She worked on the Racial Statement of our website and also serves on the Governance and Nominating committees. She’s proud of the Legislative success that GAGV has had in our short history and misses the programs that Grandmothers organized in the past to inform the public of what GAGV is doing to advocate for gun control.

Honesty is what she feels is most important in a person’s character and Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) is the person she most admires and would have liked to know. Mary founded Bethune-Cookman College in Florida and has been the advisor to 4 of our Presidents. She also founded the National Council of Negro Women and Cherie is currently the 1st Vice President of their Seattle chapter.

Cherie finds happiness in the beauty of nature. She loves butterflies, flowers, the water, especially Lake Washington and the view of Mt. Rainier, which she calls “God’s Ice Cream Cone.” She considers herself a cautious person except when it comes to chocolate. She’ll throw caution to the wind if there’s a box of See’s chocolate, Costco’s decadent Tuxedo cake or simply Hershey’s kisses in the room. That’s the secret to getting on her good side and to be fair, I also have to share that she doesn’t seem to have a bad side. Upbeat, patient, optimistic and a good listener all describe Cherie to a tea. But when serving her that tea, do remember to include the chocolate and a rose.