On Friday, the community said goodbye to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. national president Cheryl A. Hickmon.
She passed away Jan. 20, just a few months after becoming the organizations 27th national leader.
It was a celebration of life fitting for a woman from Hartford who touched lives all over the world.
Hickmon was remembered today at The First Cathedral by family, friends and her sisters in the Sorority - for becoming national president and leading the organization of 300,000 women worldwide was a nearly life-long dream.
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“Everywhere Cheryl Hickmon went, she left a huge impact. As she encouraged us to impact the world through sisterhood, scholarship, service and social action, we know that she will impact the world and impact our sorority forever” said National President Elsie Cooke-Holmes.
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, also a member of Delta Sigma Theta, read a letter in honor of Hickmon from President Biden. Secretary Fudge said beyond any titles and acclaim, Hickmon was a woman who did the work of the service-focused organization.
“I knew from the time I met Cheryl when she was 19, she would be a force. All of the things we talked about just ran through her veins. She was somebody that everybody will remember,” said Fudge.
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State Senator Dough McCrory, who knew Hickmon as a child growing up in Hartford, said watching Hickmon return home to Hartford as a leader and Delta encouraged him to pursue membership in a fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, when he went to college.
Now, he hopes her legacy will be a new charge for the community she leaves behind.
“This is a signal for all of us. It’s time for us to stand and when it’s your time - lead. She did it and she was a role model for all of us," McCrory said.
The Delta Research and Education Foundation has established a scholarship in Cheryl Hickmon’s memory. You can learn about the sorority here.
