Bio: Diers, Cheri (Diverse - 1980)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Diers, Dickens, Rich, Bee Gee, Nabors, Cash, Parton, Valley

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 6/26/1980

Diers, Cheri (Diverse - 1980)

Cheri Diers, Neillsville correspondent for The Clark County Press, is a woman of many faces, a conglomeration of characters as diverse as those in any Charles Dickens novel. When she’s not gathering local news for The Press, a job she’s had for nearly three years, she is a student, a gardener, a musician, a traveler and a cook, among other things.

First and probably most important, at least for the present, is Cheri Diers the student. She is a junior at the UW-Eau Claire, where she is majoring in Management Information Systems, which is in the business-computer field.

She spends the majority of her time studying, which is one reason why she’s continually on the dean’s list and why she is maintaining an over-all grade-point average of 3.71. She is also a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, the women’s honor society.

Her studious habits were apparent even at Neillsville High School. She had been co-editor of the school newspaper (she started her college career at Eau Claire as a journalism major, before switching to business), and had been involved with a host of other extracurricular activities, but she still managed to serve as valedictorian of the 1978 graduating class.

And she enjoys college, but “but, four years is plenty, though. If I just get through college, I’ll be very happy,” she says.

Almost as important to her as her studies is her music. Cheri is an accomplished pianist and drummer, and she is also a student of the organ. She’s been playing the piano since second grade and the drums since fifth; she’s used both skills performing in singing groups with her friends, with whom she has competed in talent shows.

She says she prefers piano, since then music is more diverse and challenging, but she enjoys the drums as therapy. “They’re great when you’re frustrated,” she says. She has played drums for marching bands, and she even played in the college band in her first year of school, but mostly she enjoys playing her “combo” set like a female Buddy Rich.

Not only is she a performer, but Cheri is also a fan, who “loves all kinds of music except hard rock.” One of her favorite groups is the Bee Gees, whom she has seen in concert. She’s also seen Jim Nabors, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons. “I touched Frankie Valley,” she says proudly.

Also on her list of characters is Cheri the “Home-body.” She is an avid gardener, cook and needleworker.

Gardening is one of her favorite hobbies, and she has a myriad of plants, both indoors and out, to prove it. But when she’s not growing plants, she is probably cooking them, for she is also a skillful cook-by way of proof, she won the Clark County Bake-off in 1974.

Cheri collects antiques, memorabilia and photographs, mostly taken on one of her many travels throughout the country. She’s been to Nashville, Tennessee; Hershey, Pennsylvania, New York City, and Washington, D.C. as well as New Jersey and Florida.

On the more unusual side of her character, Cheri is also an enthusiastic Brewers fan, enjoys sweepstakes and other contests of chance. She said her mother has won a couple of sweepstakes, which is what got her interested.

Although Cheri has yet to win anything herself, it’s certainly not through any lack of effort on her part. She estimates that she has probably entered 30 sweepstakes so far this year.

And next year, when she turns 21, she and her family will be making a trip to Las Vegas, where Cheri will fulfill her dream: she’ll get to try her luck without paying postage.

Cheri has a brother, Donald, that lives in Stoughton, and A sister, Linda, that lives in Milwaukee, but when she graduates, Cheri hopes to find a job in the Neillsville area, so she can be near her parents, Charles and Lillian Diers, Rt. 2.