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Obituary

Children, even adults will miss grandfatherly giver

George Cherry spread joy for years as Santa and as a Baptist preschool's "Grandpa."

By MARY JANE PARK
Published December 14, 2005

PINELLAS PARK - They paid $75 for the Santa suit, discovered in pristine condition at a yard sale. It had never been taken out of the box.

The wig came from a costume shop, but the beard was his own. She was Mrs. Santa, in an outfit she sewed.

Two years ago, they were invited to ride in the Pinellas Park Christmas parade. They sat high atop the very last float, waving at spectators. They visited nursing homes and friends' houses, spreading holiday cheer.

But George and Betty Cherry had a special affection for the children at the First Baptist Preschool Center.

She was its director for 31 years; he started talking about making elfin rounds at the school a decade before he retired from Edwards Manufacturing in Tampa. For the past several years, they distributed gifts there around Christmas. That tradition will be broken.

Mr. Cherry died of lung cancer last week, 17 years after he quit smoking, six months and a day after his diagnosis. The disease took 80 pounds off his large frame. He was 68.

"This was the thing that bothered him the most when he was dying, that he wouldn't be able to be Santa this year," Mrs. Cherry said. "I caught him crying in his recliner. I said, "What's the matter, honey?'

"He said, "You know how much I loved doing that. Now I won't get to do it this year.' It was just an immense joy for him."

"It's going to be so lonely this year," said Irene Robison, the school's director. "He's just been around here forever."

The Cherrys met in church half a century ago, at Norwood Baptist in St. Petersburg. They married in September 1956. For 44 of their married years, they lived in the same house in Pinellas Park where they raised a daughter, Cathy, and a son, George II.

The home is cozy and filled with furniture, cabinetry and other creations Mr. Cherry crafted in his workshop, where fine sawdust covers many of the surfaces.

"He could do anything," Mrs. Cherry said. If he didn't know how to do something, he would head to the public library to research a project. Otherwise, he would interrogate someone who did have the answers, long enough to learn how to accomplish a task himself.

Six years ago, she had breast cancer, and he took some time away from work to care for her. He rebuilt the kitchen, installing a new pantry and using wooden spoons as cupboard door pulls. A vintage chest of drawers became a vanity in which Mr. Cherry installed a faucet and sink.

"I don't know how I would have made it without him," Mrs. Cherry said.

His Santa suit, freshly dry-cleaned, hangs on a bedroom door.

Ms. Robison, the preschool director, says the jolly old elf had a gruff side, "but then you'd see a tear running down his cheek."

The soft side came out with his wife.

"He really put her on a pedestal, and she deserved it," Ms. Robison said. Nearly every Sunday, they were in the second pew of the church, on the left side of the nave. "You never didn't see him with his arm around her at some point during the service."

At the preschool Christmas program, which occurs tonight, the couple traditionally dressed up as Grandma and Grandpa, gathering the children around them onstage. Mrs. Cherry read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke.

This year's presentation will be dedicated "to Grandpa George Cherry, who went to be with our Lord," Ms. Robison said.

[Last modified December 14, 2005, 00:14:15]