Mary Elizabeth Cherry was born on a farm on July 12th, 1916, in Drewyville, Virginia. She departed on June 24, 2026 after succumbing to illness. She is the third child of the eleven children born to Clinton and Betty Sue Claud. Mary is the mother of three children and one daughter-in-law: Steven Cherry (deceased), Erle Cherry, Rosemary Cherry, and Magdalena Cherry. She has five grandchildren: Tonia Perry, Nikkole Cherry, Ann Marie Cherry, Erle Cherry Jr., and Nicolos Howard. She has sixteen great- grandchildren. Additional family members and loved ones include her niece and nephew Daryle and Susan Fontenot, the Claud family of Drewyville, Virginia, and friends and families of Wagner Housing (NYCHA).

After graduation from high school and attending college in Virginia, Mary decided to follow her older sister Deliah and move to New York City, where she has been a resident of East Harlem for ninety-plus years.

Mary began her career as a sales associate at Learner’s Department Store on 125th Street. She later worked as a secretary for the State of New York, where she retired. Soon after, Mary was recruited to serve as assistant director of Wagner’s Senior Citizens Center. She accepted the role and continued to contribute to the community for another thirty years, until the age of ninety.

Mary enjoyed helping others and visiting with her sisters and family. She loved her grandchildren immensely. She enjoyed playing bid whisk, going to Atlantic City and listening to music. She always had great one-liners, quick verbal comebacks to make you laugh, and secret talents like playing the piano and being a math whiz even in her early one hundred years.

On October 22, 2022, she was honored by the 57th Governor of New York Kathy Hochul, and Edward Gibbs, Member of New York Assembly District 68, for being a spirited centenarian who has devoted her life to supporting and advocating for the community’s aging population, and for all of her contributions to her family and community and her positive outlook on life.

She was phenomenal.