FLOD Spotlight - Issue 2

“My dad’s funeral was such a spectacle that I didn’t
have a moment to cry.” So begins award-winning
journalist Cheryl Wills’ 2010 book, Die Free: A Heroic
Family Tale (Bascom Hill). It was a pivotal moment
in time for the author, one that set the stage for her
journalistic curiosity to flourish. Many years later,
Wills fully uncovered the details of her family’s legacy
of struggle, which became the foundation of her
book. Key among the revelations Wills shares is the
journey of a runaway slave, Sandy Wills, her great,
great grandfather, and the connection to her father’s
divergent experiences, well over a century later.
As she shares her personal insights about the impact
of slavery at lectures and events around the
country, Wills has remained a highly visible, much
admired and trusted journalist in the New York
metropolitan area (and well beyond). As an anchor
and senior reporter for New York One News, Time
Warner Cable’s flagship national news network that
launched in 1992, she is one of the Big Apple’s most
recognizable faces. She’s performed cameos on
episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and
The Strain and appeared in the films Spiderman 2
and The Brave One. Most recently, Wills published a
children’s book called The Emancipation of Grandpa
Sandy Wills (Lightswitch Learning), illustrated by
Randell Pearson, which she hopes will encourage
youngsters to explore and embrace the heroism in
their own family history and, perhaps, strive to be
heroes themselves.
“I’M GOING TO BE MY AUTHENTIC
SELF, IN SPITE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
PRESSURES. I DON’T KNOW ANY
OTHER WAY TO PUT IT.”

COVER STORY | A CONVERSATION WITH CHERYL WILLS
HEROES
HISTORY
& HOPE
BY JAMES ARENA
CHERYL SITS DOWN WITH FLOD IN A SPACIOUS CONFERENCE ROOM AT THE DOWNTOWN STUDIOS OF
NEW YORK ONE TO TALK ABOUT HER LIFE AND EXPERIENCE AS AN AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST.
FLOD: Cheryl, you faced some
formidable challenges in your
youth. Would you share some
of that experience?
“I was raised in Rockaway
Beach, Queens, New York. I
was the daughter of a fireman
who integrated a firehouse – his
name was Clarence Wills. I was
the oldest of five children. It was
an ideal [family life] in the beginning.
My father was the first
in the family to graduate from
high school, and he was raised in
Tennessee. He was swept up in a
black migration out of Tennessee
because the area was filled with
segregation, violence and the
Klan. My parents sought greener
pastures in New York City. I
was the first of my family born
in New York. My father was
very well-spoken, and he was
determined that his five children
would never know a day of poverty.
He never wanted us to see
the horrors he had seen. His father
was an alcoholic, and he was
determined he was going to be
better.
“But he lost his way. When
I was about nine, he became
his father – to my horror. I had
this lovable, beautiful life off
the Atlantic Ocean in Rockaway
Beach, and then my father
was gone. I knew in my heart of
hearts this wasn’t his intention.
But something took him over.
He decided he was in his 30s, he
had five kids (including a boy,
Clarence Jr., who was autistic),
and he just decided he wanted
to have fun again. I guess it was
kind of like a mid-life crisis –
before it was even mid-life. He
joined a motorcycle club, leather
vest and all. I write all about
it in my book, Die Free, and he
paid more attention to his friends
in that club – all a bunch of alcoholics
and hoodlums (as far as
I was concerned), who were also
firemen and policemen. They
had badges, guns and authority.
They were the cool guys. And for
whatever reason, my father decided
he wanted to be part of that
rat pack. We were like, ‘Where
did daddy go?’
“We saw him spiral downward.
Being the oldest and a
future journalist, my eyes were
wide open, and I was taking
mental notes. What happened
to my perfect life? Finally the
bombshell – he was killed (while
with those friends) in a horrific
crash on the Williamsburg
Bridge. A car side-swiped him
on the way to Brooklyn, and he
hit a steel beam. He was practi-
FLOD SPOTLIGHT | ISSUE 2 | FIRSTLADIESOFDISCOSHOW.COM 3

COVER STORY | A CONVERSATION WITH CHERYL WILLS
“FOR ME TO LEARN THIS AND TO FOR ME TO BE THE FIRST IN OUR FAMILY TO
CONNECT THE DOTS IN 150 YEARS—I DON’T MEAN TO SOUND ARROGANT,
BUT I AM SO DAMN PROUD.”
cally beheaded. It happened at
midnight – it was literally the
midnight of his life. There would
be no morning for him. September
4th, 1980. I was 13.”
FLOD: This must have been an
extremely dramatic turning
point in your life.
“It changed me profoundly.
Thirteen is such an incredible
age for us Americans anyway.
You’re now a teen, discovering
boys and trying to figure out who
you are – and in the middle of
all that, I deal with this unspeakable
tragedy. My first love was
my father, as it is for most girls,
and he ignored me. He basically
said I wasn’t important as those
guys he was hanging with. That
message was received and would
have crippled me if I had let it.
“The funeral was terrible –
open casket. My grandmother
was old-fashioned, so it had to
be open. When they opened that
casket, I almost fainted. Who was
that? He was almost unrecognizable.
He was disfigured from the
crash – he just looked like a mangled
monster. My brother and
sisters were like, ‘What the hell
are we looking at?’
“From that point, I evolved
into a person who started asking
who I was, why did my father die,
why do people hate us because
we’re black, what is our ancestry
and who are we in this world. I
didn’t get the answer until my
30s. It turns out my father didn’t
know who he was. If he had, he
would have realized he probably
loved being a hot shot paratrooper
in the war, for example, because
his great, great grandfather,
Sandy Wills, was a soldier who
fought in the Civil War. If he had
known of the integrity of Sandy
Wills, who had nine children and
lived in a shack with no indoor
plumbing or electricity, he might
have been inspired enough to say
I will stay with my wife and five
children with all the luxuries and
conveniences we were blessed to
have. But it was easy for the lure
and sexiness of street life to pull
him away.”
FLOD: The story of Sandy Wills
and, in turn, your father, is documented
in your 2010 book Die
Free - A Heroic Family. How
did you come to obtain the details
of your family’s history?
“Once I learned about Sandy
Wills – the details were both
humbling and horrifying. I have
those details because I got all the
documents from the National
Archives. I started my search on
ancestry.com and connected all
the dots. I hired a genealogist just
to be doubly sure, and he was
able to confirm that I was related
to Sandy Wills.”
FLOD: How has discovering
your family history, from slavery
through the time of your
father, affected you on a personal
level?
“It gives me closure. I can
finally close the casket on my
father’s death. You want to know
the truth? My father died in 1980
– so that’s about 35 years. Not
only was it like an open wound,
I was like, ‘So that’s it? Your story
ends here? Who are we? You
never even got to tell us about our
family legacy. You just checked
right out.’ For me to learn this
and to for me to be the first in our
family to connect the dots in 150
years – and to be the first in my
family to travel back to West Africa
and stand in the doorway of
Glory Island where we were taken
from and put onto slave ships
– I don’t mean to sound arrogant,
but I am so damn proud. I am so
proud that I figured out this puzzle
because I think it’s a shame
my father did what he did and
was unaware of the tremendous
sacrifices that were made for him
to enjoy the opportunities that he
did. He took it all for granted –
what a shame.
“I believe that wherever my
father is, he led me to this. He
left so much documentation – everything
he did, he left evidence.
When I wrote this book, I saw all
of the papers and pictures of the
guys he hung out with – he kept
detailed notes. It was unbelievable.
I think he was saying with
all the documentation of his life,
which would be very short, someone
will care that I was here.”
4 FLOD SPOTLIGHT | ISSUE 2 | FIRSTLADIESOFDISCOSHOW.COM

COVER STORY | A CONVERSATION WITH CHERYL WILLS
FLOD: How did your mother
handle this terrible situation?
“She became a widow at 38,
and she had to pick herself up
and journey on, soldier on by
herself. [She had one child with
autism] and four more to take
care of, and my mom handled it
like a champ. It wasn’t easy. And
she lived with the rejection of her
husband, who put her in a situation
that didn’t have to be. My father
didn’t die of cancer or have
a stroke – he did something reckless
and got himself killed. If he
had been home with his wife and
children, [she knew] we would
not have been going through this.
She had all this personal anguish
– she was an incredibly strong
woman.”
FLOD: Have you forgiven your
father?
“Oh, yeah. In my maturity
(I’m almost 50), I forgive him
150 per cent. I know that things
can take you over, and you can
become unrecognizable even to
yourself. That happens to people
every day. The older you
get, the more forgiving you get
because you start to look back
over your own shoulder and
think, ‘Hmmm, I guess I should
have done this or that.” So, we’re
all fragile, and we all make mistakes.
I think the biggest tragedy
about my father is that he didn’t
get to fix his mess.”
FLOD: Writing Die Free appears
to have been a very cathartic
experience for you. What do
you think others will get from
reading it?
“I’ve received tremendous
feedback from people who said
it was cathartic for them as well.
They look at me and see that I
didn’t allow myself to be tormented
by [the events surrounding
my father’s death]. Now, I
was angry – but not tormented.
Sometimes when you are tormented,
you start to torment
yourself and punish yourself.
When you do that, you can’t be
your best self. I think I have been
an inspiration, they tell me, for
people whose parent or parents
walked away from them. My father
set the stage for my destruction
– by that I mean self-destruction.
(I have a special kind of
empathy for people who turn to
drug and alcohol abuse. I never
drank or did drugs, but I can see
how, in a moment of feeling sorry
for myself, I could have done
it.) They see me on television,
and they know I didn’t let that
destroy me.”
FLOD: Tell me how you came to
be a news anchor at NY1.
“When I graduated from Syracuse
University in 1989, majoring
in Broadcast Journalism,
my first job here in New York
City was at [Fox] Channel Five.
I had these dreams of being an
anchor and an author, but I had
no idea how I was going to accomplish
them. I just knew I had
to forge ahead and take whatever
opportunities came my way.
That’s what I always tell students
– stop trying to figure out the
how and just do it. So, I started
“THE OLDER YOU GET, THE
MORE FORGIVING YOU GET
BECAUSE YOU START TO
LOOK BACK OVER YOUR
SHOULDER AND THINK,
HMMM, I GUESS I SHOULD
HAVE DONE THIS OR THAT.”
FLOD SPOTLIGHT | ISSUE 2 | FIRSTLADIESOFDISCOSHOW.COM 5

COVER STORY | A CONVERSATION WITH CHERYL WILLS
“COME TO NEW YORK CITY...WHERE YOU REALIZE THE WORLD ISN’T JUST YOUR LITTLE
FEARFUL CORNER WHERE EVERYONE HAS TO THINK, SOUND AND PRAY LIKE YOU.”
out as a news assistant making
three dollars an hour. There was
a line around the block of kids
who wanted the job. I did that
for three years. Then this new
concept of 24-hour cable news
in New York City was starting.
One of the producers [at New
York One] invited me to come
and help staff it up. It was very
clear I was never going to be a
reporter at Channel 5 (they made
that abundantly clear in the three
years I had been working there
for minimum wage), so I said absolutely.
I came over as a writer.
“The beautiful thing about
coming here as part of the original
staff was I watched the creation
of a news room. We did not
know in 1992 if this was sink or
swim. We did not know if Time
Warner was going to continue
to fund it. We worked so hard to
brand New York One and make
sure that it would fly. (There are
12 of us from the original group
left today.) It was very hard
work. We were doing a 24-hour
news station in New York City
– it had never been done, and it
was great. Very quickly, I was
promoted to producer, and after
that I became a reporter. A few
years later, I became an anchor.
“The producer who offered
me this chance was not only
making it to me - he made it to
maybe two other young people
who were just starting out. Neither
of them wanted to take the
chance. They felt they were safer
at Fox 5. I knew if I got in on
the ground floor and New York
One soared, I would soar with
it. I knew I could do something
extraordinary being part of the
original team.”
FLOD: You’ve had many exclusive
interviews and have spoken
with many celebrated and
important local, national and
international figures. What has
to happen to get the very best
from an interview? What kind
of connection must you make
with the individual?
“That’s such an excellent
question. Two of the biggest interviews
of my career happened
this year, almost back to back
– the president of Liberia, Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, and United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Kimoon.
It took me a long time to
get the interviews – you have to
work hard and pray; there’s so
much that goes into it. The first
thing I’d say about an interview
is you have to make them feel at
ease. That’s number one. If they
feel threatened, it’s over. They
will give you the standard BS
answers, their guard goes up, and
they can never be penetrated.
“When I interviewed President
Sirleaf, that was incredible.
She is like the female Nelson
Mandela. She was jailed, beaten,
ostracized. It was such a tremendous
highlight in my career just
to sit with her. Most powerful
people feel misunderstood. I
knew there were things people
didn’t understand about her, and
one of the subjects I asked her
about was her sister. [I initially
reached President Sirleaf for
this interview] through her sister.
That’s how you reach powerful
people. Going through the official
channels – awful. One of the
things I knew was that President
Sirleaf’s sister was older, and I
knew that she didn’t like the fact
that people assumed she was older
than her sister because she was
the president. I asked her what
was one of the unique things
6 FLOD SPOTLIGHT | ISSUE 2 | FIRSTLADIESOFDISCOSHOW.COM

COVER STORY | A CONVERSATION WITH CHERYL WILLS
about having an older sister. She
responded something like, ‘Yes,
she’s older, and she bosses me
around. But sometimes I have to
remind her who I am.’ This was a
live interview, and the audience
erupted. They got to see a side of
her they would never normally
see.
“So, you have to kind of put
yourself in the [interviewee’s]
shoes and ask questions that they
aren’t usually asked. I was very
proud of that moment. I mean,
it wasn’t profound or anything.
We didn’t crack any code, but
we saw something in a famous
woman who was awarded a Nobel
Peace Prize that was never
seen before.”
FLOD: When you cover a story
that directly or indirectly affects
you, how do you maintain
a sense of balance in your reporting?
“I think of my responsibility
to the viewers. A true journalist
doesn’t impose his or her beliefs
– we see a lot of that now.
People like Bill O’Reilly are becoming
millionaires by injecting
what they think is right. Okay,
everyone knows your name, and
everyone buys your books, but
that’s not what we were taught in
journalism school. I look at that
and squirm.”
FLOD: Does celebrity for some
newspeople compromise their
ability to resist going in that
direction?
“Sometimes. I don’t think it
has to, but sometimes. I’m hoping
that my personal standard
[will always be] to call it straight
down the middle. I can report
about the most repulsive thing
in the world, and I can promise
you on my [newscast] you won’t
know [how I feel] about it. Now,
if I write something about it on
my blog after the fact, that’s appropriate.
As a journalist, I still
have First Amendment rights, of
course. But for television, I have
made a vow that I am not going
to sit and impose my personal
beliefs and insult all of the people
who see it differently. My job
as a journalist is not to tell you
what to think, but to bring you
the facts so you can draw your
own conclusion. I will stick by
that forever.”
FLOD: You’ve been reporting on
the condition of the world for
decades, and much of it is obviously
very bad news. As challenging
as life today is across
the globe, do you still see hope
in mankind’s future?
“That’s a good question. You
know, after covering 9-11 and
seeing everything that’s happening
with ISIS, San Bernadino –
even with all that, I try to be optimistic,
and I try to be fair, and I
try not to cause panic. I have to
try not to show emotion, and I
think people appreciate that.
“I do feel optimism for the
world. That’s why I love history.
This country has gone through
really tough times. I love that
I am a descendent of African
slaves. No one thought slavery
would end. Slavery was with
this country up until the Civil
War. Even when half the country
abolished it, some people would
not. Thanks to some journalists
and powerful former slaves, like
Frederick Douglass and Harriette
Tubman and other activists –
they said, no, we’re going to join
forces and put an end to this once
and for all. That was an incredible
time. They did it without all
our modern conveniences – they
didn’t have Twitter to tell people
where to meet. We don’t know
what that life was like. We are,
generally, free people.
“Domestic terrorism is happening
everyday. Someone goes
into a store and shoots people
and we think, ‘only one or two
dead.’ One or two is a lot, I’m
sorry. The threshold keeps getting
higher and higher. I am confident
this will come to an end.
I am hopeful - I believe it will
change. I am. I’m optimistic that
a lot of the terrible things we see
today will also go away. I have to
have hope.”
FLOD: You have a new project
out called The Emancipation
of Grampa Wills, an illustrated
children’s book. What do you
want to accomplish with it?
“Right now, I am very upset
with the murder rate among
men of color. I’m very upset that
black children are being steered
into a life of crime as if there’s no
alternative. Kids are going from
high school right into the penitentiary.
And when they come
out, they are these very challenged
individuals. That’s why I
wrote this book. I want children
to see themselves in a positive
light. I want them to look at their
family history and think, ‘Maybe
there’s a hero in my family.’
Maybe they will think that maybe
they can make their family
proud. I am thinking if we arouse
the consciousness of people, especially
children, they will eventually
change what we see [in the
world].”
FLOD: I’d like to know how you
feel about your connection to
New York City. How do you
feel about this town?
“I love being a New Yorker.
I can’t imagine being anywhere
else. My father, during his best
days, was a fireman on the streets
of New York and drove his fire
engine right in midtown. His firehouse
was Engine One, Ladder
24, right around the corner from
Madison Square Garden. I can’t
tell you how many times I walk
around midtown and think my
father rode these streets. I feel he
did something important here.
“It’s the grandest city in the
world to me. It’s a kick-ass city
where if you can make it here (I
know that’s a cliché), every other
city is just like – please. Cake
walk for sure. I love the diversity
here. I feel like I’ve been everywhere
in the world. Not because
FLOD SPOTLIGHT | ISSUE 2 | FIRSTLADIESOFDISCOSHOW.COM 7

COVER STORY | A CONVERSATION WITH CHERYL WILLS
THE NEED FOR SPEED WITH
CHERYL WILLS
Saver or spender?
“Saver – to a fault.”
Organic or conventional?
“Organic, even though it’s more
expensive.”
America’s Got Talent or
The Voice?
“Can I say neither?”
Designer or off-the-rack?
“Off-the-rack. Designer? I would
never! Someone just said to me
yesterday that she spent $1,000
on a dress. I would have to have
sooooo much money to spend
that much on a dress!”
Funniest on-air flub?
“Fixing myself [in the anchor
chair] and not knowing I was live
as I was primping my hair. That’s
always lovely.”
Stuck in a subway delay or
traffic on a bridge?
“I’d rather be on a bridge – at least
you can run.”
If you weren’t a news anchor/
reporter/author, what would
you be?
“Oh, wow! An activist – no doubt
about it.”
PHOTOS: ZO PHOTOGRAPHY
of my travels, but because of
the diversity here in New York.
There’s nothing worse than living
in a bubble with people just
like you – that’s such a cowardly
way to live. Generally, that
leads to becoming narrow-minded
and comfortable only with
people who think and look like
you. Come to New York City,
where you have to adjust to the
rhythms, where you get a little bit
of everything, where you realize
the world isn’t just your little
fearful corner where everyone
has to think, sound and pray like
you.
“There’s a whole world that
we need to be tolerant of, and
that’s the world I want to be part
of.”
FLOD: What’s your take on social
media, Cheryl? How do
you feel about its importance
for those establishing a media
identity? Does it create pressure
for you to have a strong
presence on it?
“I reject that. I only have 900
and something Twitter followers,
and I only went on this year because
my job required it. I’m on
Facebook, and I don’t have many
followers, but – can I just tell you
– I don’t care. I don’t care about
likes and hits and all that. I’m
going to be my authentic self, in
spite of social media pressures. I
don’t know any other way to put
it. If you follow me on Twitter,
great. If you don’t, it’s still great.
I don’t think it’s a barometer
of your talent or how well you
perform with your gifts. (By the
way, there’s a lot of people who
just buy Twitter followers to look
like they have thousands, when
they really have 70.) I’m like,
‘I’m good.’ The day I buy Twitter
followers – I’d give the money
to charity long before I’d ever
do that.
“A lot of it is so shallow to
me. I don’t measure myself by
social media. I know it’s a necessary
thing today, but I feel badly
for anyone who looks at someone
and says something about
the number of followers someone
has. I heard some nighttime
comedian say something like,
‘Yeah, with her 1200 Twitter followers,’
and everyone laughed.
So, this is the new ‘cool kids’?
Get out of here with that. Whatever.”
FLOD: What do you want to do
next?
“I have two primary goals.
I’d like to become a national
journalist. I’m not sure how, but
as with my entire career, that
will work itself out. Also, I finally
lucked out and found a great
publisher called Light Switch
Learning. They are brand new
and have a focus on children. I’d
like to see if I can help them become
the next Scholastic – and
bigger. They published my new
children’s book. They are a great
team and growing. I love them,
they love me, and they’re like,
‘Let’s do it together.’ And I’m
like, ‘Yes!’ This is my dream.
So many publishers – well, first
of all, they’re all in trouble because
nobody reads anymore.
They don’t think outside of the
box. Screw all that – let’s chart
a new course, and that’s what
we’re doing. It’s almost like New
York One all over again! I’m so
excited!”
FLOD: So Cheryl, when it’s time
for you to leave this world,
what do you want them to say
about what you contributed to
your family history?
“I love that question because
– and hopefully I won’t go anytime
soon – but when I get old,
one of the things I’m gonna do
is write my own obituary. I don’t
want anyone to write it for me.
Nobody knows how to write
them and capture the essence of
someone’s life.
“So, the way I want people
to remember me is for what I’ve
done. I want them to say, ‘Cheryl
was dealt a bad hand, and she
stayed at the table and kept playing.
The world told her to fold
and go in a corner, and she stayed
at the table.’ I didn’t know how
to play at first, but I kept fucking
playing! And then I mastered it.
I died sitting at the table, not in
the corner, where they thought I
should be.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON
CHERYL’S BOOKS, VISIT HER SITE
WWW.WILLSCIVILWARHISTORY.COM
8 FLOD SPOTLIGHT | ISSUE 2 | FIRSTLADIESOFDISCOSHOW.COM

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