Cheryl Yasmine Pearson, longtime librarian at the Sitka Public Library, passed away in Oro Valley, Arizona, on January 11, 2016, due to influenza complications. She was 69.
Cheryl was born in San Carlos, California, to William Klose, an electrical contractor, and Madelaine Beard Klose, a nurse. While still a young child Cheryl moved with her family from the San Francisco Bay area to ranchland near Auburn, California. The family built a home on the property and over the years raised numerous animals.
Cheryl learned to love animals on her family’s ranch, a love that continued (especially for cats and Siberian huskys) during the rest of her life.
Her first exposure to Alaska was on a trip with her parents in 1962, taken in conjunction with a visit to Seattle for the World’s Fair. It was for her, literally, “Alaska love” at first sight. Cheryl vowed to return to Alaska after she failed to convince her parents to allow her to stay and complete high school in pre-earthquake Valdez.
After finishing her secondary education at Placer Union High School in Auburn, California, Cheryl attended Chico State University, majoring in anthropology and obtaining a teaching certificate.
She worked as a school teacher in Redway, Dorris and Richardson Springs, California, before fulfilling her vow to return to Alaska in the late 1970s.
Living first in Ketchikan and later in Sitka, she returned to California in 1981 to assist her father, who was ill with cancer at the time. Cheryl returned to Alaska in 1985, building a home in Sitka with her mother (who left California after her husband’s death).
During the remainder of the 1980s Cheryl worked for the University of Alaska Southeast, Community Schools and the Sitka School District (as a building secretary and substitute teacher).
Further education for Cheryl, in library and information studies at the University of Hawaii Manoa, lead to graduation near the top of her class with a master’s degree. After completing that graduate program, she returned to Alaska and was employed as a library assistant in Sitka, as director of the Seward Public Library and as iterim library director at Kegoayah Kozga Library in Nome, before being appointed director at the Sitka Public Library (Kettleson Memorial Library at the time) in 2001. She retired as a librarian in 2009 and thereafter moved to the Tucson area, where she lived until her death.
Cheryl came back to Sitka frequently, especially for the Sitka Summer Music Festival each June.
She was an intrepid adventurer and made a “car camping” trip by herself around the United States in 2010. With her family she traveled over the years to countless foreign destinations such as France, Switzerland, New Zealand and The Cook Islands, and made numerous trips to Mexico.
Cheryl’s passions included fishing and outdoor adventure around Sitka (to Baranof Warm Springs, to Allen Point and to Kanga Bay by boat were among her favorites). However, she always took along at least one book – books were a touchstone for her, along with family and friends. A good read, a well-told joke and a glass of good wine was a fulfilling evening for Cheryl.
Before leaving Alaska she had a 23-year marriage to Denton Pearson of Sitka.
Cheryl is survived by her daughter Alia Carter, son-in-law Nicholas Carter and grandson Aidan Carter, of Reykjavik, Iceland; her sister Barbara Edge and brother-in-law Armond Edge, of Reidville, South Carolina; and her brother William Klose Jr., of Noxon, Pennsylvania.
A celebration of life for Cheryl will be held at the Sitka Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall at 2 p.m., Saturday, January 23, 2016. Those attending are welcome to bring finger foods to share after the service.
