DEBORAH SGORBATI

SGORBATI--Deborah.

Known to many as Cherokee, Deborah passed suddenly on the morning of March 8th in her home in New York City. A native of Tulsa, OK, Cherokee came to New York the day after graduating from high school to pursue a career as a writer and to satisfy her passion for live opera. Cherokee published four romance novels as Deborah Sherwood, under the Dell imprint and a fifth, "The Tsar's Woman" published in Moscow by Roman Gazeta. A work of non-fiction, "A Redhead in Red Square" was published by Dodd Mead in 1969. Prior to becoming an author, Cherokee was a scriptwriter for many of the major daytime dramas including: General Hospital, As The World Turns, The Secret Storm and The Doctors. Cherokee lived in Beverly Hills for many years and was an Executive Director of the Young Musicians Foundation. She maintained a second home in Puerto Vallarta and she commuted regularly between the two locations in her Piper PA-28 aircraft as an instrumented rated pilot. Cherokee was a patron of the Metropolitan Opera and her great joy was to perform the duties of a patron guide. She is survived by her husband, David. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Metropolitan Opera.