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New
Churches
Have Been Doing Their Best to Mask Financial Troubles 8-3-08
Many
find it troubling to drive by their city's old churches, some ornate and opulent,
others designed and built to be clean, pristine and sturdy, and to realize that
for years those buildings have been decaying. Each one began as a congruent vision
by a handful of people who somehow were able to take that vision and persuade
others to support it... Many have been on their corners for more than 100 years...
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Columns:Jackie
Gleason and Michael DeBakey Apparently Shared A Passion 7-14-08Christa
Speck Was the Most Beautiful of All 6-23-08Baytown’s
DJ of the ‘50s, Bill “Rascal” McCaskill, Conducts His “Night Train” Once More
4-10-08How
Sam, Rose and Frank Maceo Created the Fabled Balinese Room 3-6-08The
Oryoku Maru and Lieutenant Walter A. Kelso, Jr.'s Journey 2-18-08No
One Who Truly Knows the Mansion Would Ever Call It The Open Gates
1-23-08Slick
the Shoeshine Man, Sam Maceo and Christmas Eve 1949 12-21-07Teacher
Paul Barbuto’s Lifetime Pursuit Was Always Just to Play in the Band 11-18-07Carolyn
and Sammy, Her Daddy's '52 Ford and the Singer Roy Hamilton 11-2-07Champ
Did His Experiment at the State Theater and in the Name of The Enforcer 9-27-07"Set
'em up, Bascigallupi!" 9-3-07George
Roy Clough Invents Call-in Radio 8-15-07One
Time a Kitten Named Elijah Came to the Passover Seder Table to Bring Wisdom
8-3-07The
Magnificent Montague 7-15-07
He’s probably one of
the most important contributors to American black culture that has ever lived...
At
First Galveston's Stewart Beach Was Called the Riviera of the Gulf 6-30-07The
Strand: A Lingering Shadow of Riches Untold, Whispering Night Bay Breezes
6-16-07
Now that the battle that made Texas a republic
in 1836 had ended, the founders of Galveston were finally able to get down to
the business of building the new city... Jewish
Immigrants Competed with Galveston's Former Slaves in the Beginning 6-4-07
"When the Jews began temporarily settling in the Galveston, they were faced
with a new problem, one that hadn't existed in New York and Baltimore and Boston
and Philadelphia..." The
Korean War Hero Who Swung the Board of Education at Ball High
5-27-07
Lt. Col. Richard H. Schiebel
"Wanting to defend one's
country, even if it cost you your life, was something his generation understood...."
Cartwright
5-14-07
Mayor Herbie, His Time in Jail and the Big Downtown Parade
that Followed
The
Only Only 5-1-07
He Was the World's Oldest Trapeze Artist and He Lived in Old No. 25
Stanley
Marcus 4-2-07
Columns
Beginning: April 2007
Copyright William S. Cherry
All rights reserved
| William
Speakman Cherry He
may not have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle, but his middle name proved
to be prophetic.
"Born on the island" of Galveston in 1940, Bill Cherry became a R & B disc
jockey at the tender age of 14, using the nom d'air "Brokenhearted Bill." When
he wasn't talking he was writing, and at 16 he sold his first feature story to
a Houston paper. He has since written for Fortune Magazine, The Houston Business
Journal and numerous other Texas newspapers including The Victoria Advocate,
The Dallas Morning News, and The Galveston County Daily News.
In the late '50s, Cherry was attending classes at New Orleans' Tulane University
while working for AM radio station WWL. Broadcasting from behind a plate glass
window of a French Quarter furniture store, Cherry was the tuxedo (and short pants)
host of Music 'til Dawn. He also subbed as host for broadcasts from the
famous Blue Room of the Roosevelt Hotel.
In 1961, he married well-known
St. Louis classical and jazz concert pianist and Vogue fashion model, Judy Fosher.
They traveled as a team, each playing different venues. Cherry performed at the
piano at such spots as the St. Louis Playboy Club, New York's Waldorf-Astoria,
LA's Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Chicago's Blackstone Hotel and St. Louis' Chase-Park
Plaza Hotel.
Two years after their marriage, Judy died from a heart
attack. She was just 24.
In 1964, Bill returned to the University of
North Texas for additional studies and briefly worked as the second manager of
KNTU, the school's FM station.
Cherry became a vice president at Houston's
Guaranty Federal Savings and Loan and headed that company's real estate investment
company before moving to Houston's Columbia Communities where he served as vice
president of residential home building. In the mid 70's, Cherry, with partner
Steven Jay Rudy, founded The Old House Company, a Real Estate company specializing
in restoring historical housing and commercial buildings.
For twenty
years, Cherry was the historical real estate consultant for George and Cynthia
Mitchell (who developed The Woodlands, Texas). The Mitchells restored and leased
many of Galveston's 19th century cast-iron buildings in the historic district
now widely-known as the Strand.
Cherry taught finance, economics and
investments at Houston's St. Thomas University and at Galveston College and even
did a brief stint as a high school English composition and debate teacher at Dallas'
Thomas Jefferson High.
Cherry's childhood memories of life on Galveston
Island was the basis for his popular column in the The Galveston County Daily
News. The title Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories was used again
when he assembled 60 of his best columns for his first book: The book's dedication
is to his family, teachers and professors who had influenced him, and to his friend,
commedian-musician Steve Allen, who died just before the book was published.
Bill Cherry's Memories, also appeared as a series of
television features in 2001, for News 24-Houston, where it was voted the station's
most popular feature.
Now living in Dallas with his wife (a former college
sweetheart), Cherry remains busy writing, doing voice-overs for commercial films,
and playing piano for weddings, receptions, and dinner parties. He remains a real
estate consultant and tax arbitrator and is a highly regarded expert witness for
real estate and business trials.
Mr. Cherry was inducted into Texas
Radio Hall of Fame in 2005 as a Premier Member and his radio experience has made
him a popular after-dinner speaker.
We are proud to include Mr. Cherry's
Galveston Memories as a monthly feature in Texas Escapes. The abbreviated
biography that appears here is paraphased from his Wikipedia entry. |
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| Bill
Cherry's Galveston Memories |
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