A unique and ubiquitous presence in Cleveland's civic space for two decades
February 4, 1944 — February 22, 2023
OBITUARY
In the 1970s and 1980s, as area civic and charitable organizations Cheryle Wills, who rose to prominence as a Greater Cleveland civic leader in the 1970s and 1980s, passed away peacefully in her sleep during the early morning hours of February 22, 2023. She was 79.
Cheryle Elaine Anderson was born on February 4, 1944, in Jefferson City, MO to Dr. Charles E. and Marjorie L. Anderson. Cheryle was the oldest of three children. Cheryle grew up mostly in Bedford, MA and graduated from Bedford High School. Desiring a full immersion into the black experience after her nearly all-white public school years, Cheryle enrolled in Fisk University in Nashville, TN, at that time a center of student activism related to the civil rights movement then spreading throughout the South.
Although she fell in love with Fisk and the HBCU environment, she dropped out following her freshman year, moving to Los Angeles, getting married and becoming a mother at age 19. Cheryle returned to school after the birth of her second son, completing her studies at U.C.L.A. in Los Angeles, CA.
Graduation was followed by divorce and a move to Cleveland, where in a move that changed the trajectory of her life and career, Cheryle secured an internship at the House of Wills. Buoyed by the strength and splendor of Cleveland’s best-known black business — a funeral home that at its apex handled 25 funerals a week, more than 1,000 a year, making it by some reports the busiest funeral home in the country — grossing more than a million dollars a year, Cheryle quickly a became a prominent business, political and civic leader. She became a presence on countless professional and community boards, including the Phillis Wheatley Association, Goodwill Industries, and United Way of Cleveland, where she served a term as president.
Cheryle received numerous awards for her contributions as a civic leader from organizations as varied as the National Council of Negro Women and the Cleveland Jaycees and the Black Professional of the Year award. Cheryle was also named as one of Twenty Outstanding Women in Greater Cleveland. So bright was her star that she was the first woman selected as Black Professional of 1982 by the Black Professionals Association. She was a member of innumerable civic and organizations, including Jack and Jill of America Inc., Urban League of Greater Cleveland, N.A.A.C.P, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, New York chapter as well as her beloved sorority, Delta Sigma Theta.
Throughout her two decades in Cleveland, Cheryle was known not only for her indefatigability but also the unique style she brandished. Glamour could have been her middle name. You always knew when she was in the room.
In a series of interviews chronicled by Harvard University professor of education Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Cheryle cited J. Walter Wills Sr., founder of the House of Wills, as her principal mentor. It was undoubtedly through him that she met Guy Wills — then the principal scion of the Wills family — to whom she was married for most of her years in Cleveland.
The senior Wills provided Cheryle with a graduate school education in business, politics, and life. With the funeral home as a base of operations, a mountain of energy and a strong sense of self, Cheryle used her connections with such luminaries as Arnold Pinkney, Lou Stokes, George Forbes, Lee Howley Jr., and others, to become a businesswoman with holdings in cable television and radio.
After her twenty-year marriage to Guy Wills ended, Cheryle moved back to the Boston area, where she continued her strong civic engagements, even holding leadership roles in some New York City organizations.
Cheryle leaves to mourn her loss: two sons, Jae Scott Allen and Duane Edward Allen; three cherished grandchildren, Jae Scott Allen-Wills II, Alexis Wills-Moorer, and Adonia Louise Allen; five great-grandchildren, Tori Allen, Madison Holland, Victor Moorer II, Bella Moorer, and Mia Moorer; nieces, Shawn Allen and Charlain Allen; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends too numerous to mention with the exception of one very special acknowledgement to Patricia Turner Cunningham, who provided comfort and assistance to the family during Cheryle’s long fight with dementia.
A memorial service will be held this Saturday, March 18, 2023 at 11a at Mt. Zion Congregational UCC, 10723 Magnolia Dr. [44106]. The family will receive friends from 10a to 10:30a. A Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Omega Omega service is scheduled for 10:30a.
The family requests in lieu of flowers, to make donations to the Cheryle A. Wills Memorial Fund @ gofundme.com.
Arrangements have been entrusted to E. F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home [216.791.0770].
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