A writer who dared to be different
Awriter with a flamboyant personality and a penchant for nude yoga, Frances Cherry was farewelled last week at a rousing funeral that was a celebration of her life as a mother and an activist. A naturally gifted writer who used her talent to confront readers on what could often be difficult subjects, she was remembered as a larger-than-life character who was not afraid to be different.
Daughter Caitlin Cherry led funeralgoers in a rendition of one of her mother’s favourite songs, Ode to a Gym Teacher, a lesbian anthem her mother loved from the 1980s.
Although Frances frequently noted that her own mother, Connie Birchfield a high-profile communist in Wellington, embarrassed her as a child, it was clear from her writing and her willingness to take up causes that Connie was in fact a huge influence.
The 84-year-old Frances died last month after battling Parkinson’s, leaving an extensive legacy in literature and a lifetime supporting anti-establishment themes, which often featured in her writing.
A novelist and short story writer, she also wrote children’s books and was a regular letter writer in national and community papers.
Her willingness to fight for what she believed in was illustrated in a letter to the Sunday Star-Times about Josie Bullock.
In November 2007. Bullock, a Corrections officer, had lost her job after refusing to sit at the back of a room at a Mā ori function in 2004.
In 2009, the Human Rights Review Tribunal ruled Bullock had suffered ‘‘detrimental treatment’’ because of her gender.
Sunday Star-Times columnist Rosemary McLeod criticised Bullock for not following cultural procedures and sitting at the back.
Cherry wrote to the paper in support of Bullock. ‘‘Has McLeod forgotten that women are in influential positions now only because of their feminist forebears who, like Bullock, had the ‘bad manners’ to argue with authorities?’’
One of those forebears was Birchfield, who stood for Parliament as a Communist candidate five times between the 1930s and 1950s.
As a street-corner speaker, Connie had a reputation for being passionate and fearless, and until being expelled from the Communist Party in 1957, she was a supporter of the Soviet Union.
In an interview for the Christchurch Library, Frances nominated seeing her mother standing on a soapbox in Wellington’s Courtenay Place, preaching politics, as one of the most embarrassing moments of her life.
When asked who had inspired her most as a writer, she said ‘‘Jack London’’, before almost apologetically adding ‘‘and my mother’’.
In the same interview, she explained why she became a writer.
‘‘I loved becoming other people and living in worlds I had created. When I was at primary school I made up a girl called Beverley Donnelly. She lived in the sort of house I wanted to live in. I told my sister elaborate details of Beverley’s life and my sister was never sure if I was telling the truth or not. When I write I can be any age or any person I want to be, even a murderer.’’
Her writing had a number of common themes, she identified with influential women and was not afraid to write about lesbianism and feminism before such subjects became mainstream.
Dancing with Strings, published in 1989, was one of the first lesbian novels published in New Zealand.
Her fiction was extensively broadcast on radio, and she was also a long-time teacher of creative writing. Reading reviews of her work, it is clear reviewers often struggled with the subjects she addressed.
Washing Up In Parrot Bay, a novel featuring lesbians, witches and man-free conception rituals, was reviewed by Julie Middleton in the Sunday Star-Times in 2000: ‘‘Frances Cherry’s third novel, billed all-encompassingly as a ‘provocative and engaging black tragi-comedy’, appears to be the Shortland Street of lesbian literature.’’
Middleton noted it ‘‘might well be seen as extending the boundaries of Kiwi lesbian literature’’ but she hoped it would still appeal to a wider audience. ‘‘It would be a shame for it to be pushed into a pigeon-hole labelled lesbian-only lit. For the broad-minded looking for an energetic and interesting read, there is plenty to enjoy.’’
For more than 20 years, Cherry ran courses funded by Adult Community Education (ACE).
In 2009, the National government cut ACE funding by 80% ($13 million), infuriating her.
Before the cuts, she had been running writing courses at Kā piti, Mana and Onslow colleges, Hutt Valley High School and Wellington High.
The cut in funding forced her to work from her home in Kilbirnie. In an interview with The Wellingtonian, she noted that her mother had joined the Workers’ Education Association to get the education that she had missed out on as a child.
Caitlin Cherry said her mother was a vibrant and colourful character, who always enjoyed life and was not afraid to speak out.
That was never more evident than during the debate over the 1986 Homosexual Law Reform Bill.
Frances had married Australian Bob Cherry in 1957, and they had five children. The marriage ended after 20 years and she fell in love with a woman.
She was outraged by Invercargill National MP Norman Jones – dubbed ‘‘the mouth from the south’’ – who was an outspoken critic of reform.
Caitlin recalls that, at one demonstration, elegantly dressed and wearing high heels, her mother publicly confronted Jones, telling him exactly what she thought of his bigoted views: ‘‘Mr Jones, you are a f...ing idiot.’’
Although her behaviour sometimes embarrassed her children, she was their fiercest supporter.
When one of her sons was caned by a PE teacher, she went to the police and laid an assault charge, forcing the teacher to resign.
Born in Rongotai, Frances attended Wellington East Girls’ and, from an early age, had a sense of style and a rebellious streak.
As a young woman, she took home an American sailor. ‘‘He would stay at home in the spare room and he had no idea her parents were communists,’’ says Caitlin.
When he discovered their political views, he broke off the friendship but in later life she tracked him down and was disappointed to discover he was a committed Republican.
Throughout her life, she demonstrated a willingness to take on causes.
Living in Paekā kā riki, she organised public meetings when Telecom began charging prices she considered unfair and she opposed a Rudolf Steiner School, arguing ‘‘this is not a yuppie place’’. During a period living in Petone, she formed a local group to oppose a battery recycling smelter operated by Exide.
Writer Elizabeth Knox says that, as a woman who became a serious writer in later life, Cherry was an inspiration to other writers.
She was always very encouraging and was prepared to write about challenging and difficult subjects with warmth and humour, Knox says.
Although Frances was a woman of many words, her short death notice summed up her life nicely: ‘‘A unique, passionate and fiercely loving woman who was ahead of her time.’’
It could also have noted that Connie Birchfield would thoroughly have approved of her daughter, a woman who was happy to be different.
Sources: Cherry family, Read NZ, Stuff Archives and Elizabeth Knox.
A unique, passionate and fiercely loving woman who was ahead of her time.