"DON'T WEEP FOR ME. Wipe those tears away. I am Happy - I AM WITH MY Father God, Sitting On a Beach by the Crystal Sea. I LOVE YOU!"    -Cheryl Sligh, from a note left in her Bible

Cheryl Gay Sligh Claborn Zellner White McTyre, 77, of East Ellijay, Georgia, passed away on October 3, 2026. Born on January 9, 1949, at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, she was the daughter of the late Mr. Earnest Wesley Sligh and Mrs. Evelyn Leahey Sligh.

Cheryl was a 6th generation Atlantan, grew up in Sylvan Hills, a graduate of Sylvan High School, and attended DeKalb Community College. 

Cheryl Sligh was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Dovie Jenny, and her favorite nephew, Paul Jenny, aka PJ.

She is survived by her sons, Dee (Charity) Claborn and Dax (Denise Baker) Claborn; her daughter, Maria (Sonny) McTyre Harding; her grandchildren, Logan (Kaylie) Claborn, Lilyana Claborn, Domino Claborn, and Lola Harding; her great-grandchild, Kaycie Claborn; her brother of the heart, Randy Starnes; her nieces, Carol (George) Casteel, and Ruth Jenny, and many beloved cousins and a few friends.

Cheryl loved God, her family, and most of all, her little dog, Baby.

She was a headstrong daughter, a baby sister, the fun aunt, a loving cousin, a stern mother, and a quick-witted grandmother who had the most elegant penmanship.

A black-haired beauty in her youth, who almost always wore dark glasses, Cheryl was married at least 5 times; she adored tall handsome men and cigarettes above all else. She liked dogs, antiques, reading books, collecting rocks, Elvis, the Beatles, Cher, and Mel Gibson, and laying out in the sun and working on her tan.

Cheryl was, by turns, a fire-baton twirling majorette at Sylvan High, a Hippie, a teenage bride, a ParaPro, a single mom, a receptionist, a lesbian, a witch, a stenographer, a cop's wife, a Baptist, a Sunday School teacher, a minister's wife, a Certified Nursing Assistant, a Quaker, a veteran's wife, a homeschool teacher, a roof-gutter installer's assistant, a homesteader, a Foxfire-styled survivalist, and a dabbler in Catholicism, but she was most proud of aging into an old mountain woman, in her words, "a hillbilly."

Cheryl spent the last third of her life in East Ellijay, where she was known as "Mimi C," a caring neighbor with a strong personality who was bent by age, with long grey hair, rings on every finger, her wrists covered in bracelets, surrounded by cats and dogs and plants, sitting behind her pulpit, and smoking a peace pipe from the Pow-Wow. She lived a semi-reclusive life in the mountains that she loved, in a very old cabin next to a bubbling spring on Fowler Street.

A true free-spirit with a fiery temper, Cheryl never crossed a bridge she wouldn't burn. Iron-willed, sharp of mind and tongue, compassionate and often difficult, she did things in her own time, and lived by her own rules, particularly "If Mama ain't happy, nobody's happy!"

According to her wishes, in lieu of a funeral service, Cheryl's ashes will be buried in a sand dune on a undisclosed beach somewhere. 

The family would like to thank Pruitt Jasper for their care in making her comfortable over the last 14 months. 

The world breathes a sigh of relief.