Education
He grew up in Morristown, Tennessee, and the Karns community of Knox County, where he attended Karns High School.
He grew up in Morristown, Tennessee, and the Karns community of Knox County, where he attended Karns High School.
Cherry was born in Dayton, Tennessee. After high school, Cherry went on to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where he was a walk-on basketball player. He appeared in 18 games for the freshman team in 1970–1971.
In the 1971–1972 season, he and Larry Robinson, a junior college transfer with an athletic scholarship, became the first African-Americans to play on the university"s varsity team
A five-foot-eleven-inch point guard, Cherry was cut from the team after that season. Cherry completed his undergraduate and Juris Doctor degrees at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and an Master of Business Administration at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
He worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority before entering the practice of law in Knoxville. He died on August 4, 2007.