It is with a heavy heart that the West Virginia Master Naturalists share the passing of Cheryl Jennings. As one of the co-founders of the Potomac Valley Chapter, Cheryl will be missed while her legacy lives on in the chapter.
Cheryl Jennings died peacefully on Oct. 11 after a brief illness in hospice care in Rockville, Md., with friends at her side. She was 77.
Cheryl grew up in Tennessee, West Virginia, and Florida, according to a statement released by friends. She served in the U.S. Navy, where she used her eagle eyes as a photo intel specialist. After leaving the Navy, she majored in art at San Diego State University and had a career as a graphic designer and production coordinator. She moved to the Washington, D.C. area in the early 1980s. In 2002, she moved to Harper’s Ferry, W.Va. She returned to Rockville, Md. in 2024.
A beautiful paradox of Cheryl’s life was being both a leader in many areas and an avowed introvert. Her gifts for bringing women together in the lesbian community and for sharing her love of the natural world with others shone through her, according to friends. But she also reveled in solitude while using her extensive artistic talent to capture natural beauty and whimsy, often by experimenting with new techniques.
In the 1980s, when many lesbians were socially isolated, Cheryl provided a forum for connection and community as co-founder of a lesbian “rap” (discussion) group. The Rap Group met weekly to discuss issues relevant to lesbians at the time. Cheryl loosely based the group on the Parisian salons of the early 20th century. Many women formed lifelong friendships with Cheryl and other Rap Group attendees. Cheryl provided a safe, warm and welcoming space for lesbians at a time when being a lesbian could cost one a job, housing, or loss of family and friends. During her time as the host, she realized aging lesbians were nearly invisible and very vulnerable to mistreatment and were often silenced by mainstream society. So, Cheryl co-founded Passages, a groundbreaking organization that hosted annual conferences about lesbians and aging for over a decade in the D.C. area.
Another way Cheryl combined serving others and communing with nature was as a pioneer in letterboxing in Maryland and West Virginia. In this hobby, where art, nature, and outdoor adventure come together, Cheryl provided clues that others could follow through a natural area to find a box which she had hidden. She added her own artistic flair to this activity by carving her own rubber stamps for participants to use to register when they had found these boxes. Cheryl was interviewed about letterboxing and quoted under her hobby name “Squirrel” in several local publications.
Along with her love of nature, Cheryl had a green thumb. Through study and volunteering, she became both a Master Gardener and a Master Naturalist. An active member of the Potomac Valley Audubon Society, she co-founded the Potomac Valley Master Naturalist program in 2006. She happily shared her knowledge by teaching classes and leading walks on subjects ranging from mushrooms to insects to vernal pools.
Cheryl traveled across West Virginia conducting dragonfly and butterfly studies as a volunteer for the state Division of Natural Resources. She was recognized in the spring 2006 West Virginia Odonate Atlas Newsletter for collecting the largest number of species of dragonflies in a statewide study.
A gifted artist, Cheryl’s mediums included jewelry, ceramics, stained glass, leather, wood, watercolors, pencil and ink, acrylic, collage, assemblage, and photography.
After retiring at age 65, Cheryl took off in her camper van for her solo cross-country “Big Adventure.” She delighted in visiting and photographing parks and monuments from West Virginia to California and back.
Cheryl believed in her friends and their ability to grow and create. “She lifted our spirits through her steadfast encouragement and by cracking us up,” according to the statement. “She mercilessly beat us at board and card games. She loved Tony Bennett’s singing and Mary Oliver’s poetry. A spiritual woman, she drew on goddess energy from many cultures and studied Hinduism in her last year of life.”
She is predeceased by her parents, Von Jennings and Dorothy Jennings Blackwell and survived by her brother Todd Jennings and cousins. She is also survived by her friends: Catherine Small Stephens (and Dale, her husband), Jan DeRoche Kretz (and Lisa, her wife), and Mariann Seriff; her Potomac Valley naturalist crew in West Virginia; and many other friends in Maryland, West Virginia, and throughout the United States.
A celebration of Cheryl’s life will be held in January 2025. Please email cherylmemorial7@gmail.com to be notified when the date is set.
Charitable contributions may be made to Potomac Valley Audubon Society and SAGE.