R. Gregg Cherry
Robert Gregg Cherry was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 61st governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1945 to 1949.
Early life and family
Childhood, education, and military service
Born in York County, South Carolina near Rock Hill, Cherry grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina with relatives after the death of his parents. He earned bachelor's and law degrees at Trinity College. He organized and led a volunteer artillery company during World War I.Marriage
In 1921, he married Lula Mildred Stafford, the daughter of the Mayor of Greensboro Emory Junius Stafford.Career
Cherry served as mayor of Gastonia from 1919 to 1923, as a member and speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, as chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, and as a member of the North Carolina Senate. In Gastonia, it was joked that he was the best lawyer in town when sober, and the second-best lawyer in town when drunk.In 1944, Cherry was elected governor as the last in a series of governors affiliated with the political machine of former governor O. Max Gardner. He was sworn in on January 4, 1945. While campaigning for governor, Cherry went, according to one observer,
Cherry inherited an economy facing material and labor shortages as a result of the ongoing Second World War. One of his primary focuses during his term was the improvement of mental health care at state-run facilities. Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, North Carolina, is named for him.
On May 3, 1947, Cherry commuted the death sentences of four men convicted of gang raping a woman. Calvin Covington, Granger Thompson, Stacy Powell, and Cliff Inman had been convicted of raping Dorothy Frye in Lumberton in March 1946. Despite the racial dynamics, the crime had drawn less outcry since Frye had entered Lumberton's black section to buy liquor her husband was a union organizer. She was gang raped after her husband left her waiting in the car. In commuting the sentences of the four convicted rapists to life imprisonment, Cherry blamed the victim.
"After careful consideration, I am convinced that the death penalty is too severe in this case. I believe that the prosecutrix by her own misconduct and failure to observe a sense of propriety placed herself in such a situation as to create a temptation for the defendants to mistreat her and to make her an easy victim of their beastly lusts."Earlier that year, Cherry had commuted the death sentence of Thomas Lewis, another black man convicted of raping a white woman. The decision came in response to a judge petitioning for clemency, saying that Lewis's accuser, Willie Mae Johnson, was a prostitute with a long criminal record. Other clemency decisions by Cherry, however, had a factual basis. In 1945, he commuted the death sentences of Marvin Matheson, a 15-year-old boy who was convicted of the murder of Chief of Police Dexter A. Millsaps, and Ernest Brooks, a 14-year-old black who was convicted of raping a pregnant white woman in front of her 7-year-old daughter during a burglary. Cherry cited the ages of the two as the reason for his decision.
Unlike other Southern Democrats, Cherry, despite his segregationist views, supported Harry S. Truman for re-election in 1948 and did not join the Dixiecrats. He was succeeded by W. Kerr Scott on January 6, 1949. He retired from politics and returned to the practice of law. Cherry has a plaque dedicated to him in downtown Gastonia, NC.