Cheryl Bruce Kragh, 72, passed away on May 8, 2020 at Academy Manor nursing home in Andover, MA. Born on June 2, 1947, in Bartow, FL, Cheryl was the daughter of the late Eugene “Elmer” Bruce, Jr. and Mildred Edie (White) Bruce. The boy who wrote “you’re one of those rare commodities—a smart girl” in Cheryl Bruce’s 1965 high school yearbook certainly spoke the truth about Cheryl’s intellect, but his inscription also spoke the truth about the attitudes that she consistently confronted and overcame. While her father toiled in the phosphate mines and her mother worked as a loan officer at the local bank to support the family, Cheryl did her part by helping to cook and care for her younger brothers, Gene and Jimmy. An avid reader, she penned poems and short stories and played both the flute and the piano. Growing up, Cheryl aspired to be a politician or an ambassador negotiating peace deals with foreign countries. After turning thirteen, she campaigned for John F. Kennedy for president and skipped school to watch his inauguration on television. On her fourteenth birthday, Cheryl found herself touring the White House while in the nation’s capital to compete against 72 other students in the 1961 National Spelling Bee. After being crowned the champion speller in Polk County and central Florida, Cheryl boarded a train with her mother to spend a week in Washington, D.C. The exploits of the “pretty Bartow spelling champ” were page-one news in Orlando newspapers, which printed photographs of her visits to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Capitol Hill to meet Senator Spessard Holland. “Cheryl Spells Six Toughies” declared the front-page of the Orlando Evening Star after Cheryl’s first morning of competition. That afternoon, she navigated words such as “parvenu” and “coruscation” before being tripped up in the 11th round on “galantine,” a French meat dish served cold. Returning to Bartow with her $50 prize, Cheryl continued to excel in the classroom, pray at her local Baptist church, and serve her community as a member of the Rainbow Girls. After graduating second in her class at Summerlin Institute as a National Merit Scholar, the high school senior voted “most intelligent” moved north to continue her education at Atlanta’s Agnes Scott College. After marrying her high school sweetheart, the late Jack Kragh, in 1969, she worked several jobs before moving with him to Indiana for his studies at Purdue University. After returning to Atlanta, Cheryl decided to employ her mastery of words to work as a lawyer. She attended Emory Law School and received her diploma with her 10-month-old daughter, Erin, on her hip. After joining the Florida Bar, Cheryl blazed a trail as one of the top real estate attorneys in Tampa at a time when there were few women, and even fewer mothers, among the ranks of law firm partners. Even the fact of being a mother was not something to be readily shared, and the job of being a lawyer and a mother grew more difficult following her divorce, but she excelled to become a partner at the law firm Carlton Fields. Cheryl enjoyed eating out. She loved blueberry waffles and presumably had little use for galantine. Her curiosity led her to travel as much as possible. She was a cutthroat bridge player and had a wicked wit, probably well-honed through years of suffering with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Education was very important to Cheryl and she served as a role model for Erin to pursue a similar path. The challenges Cheryl faced only increased as her body began to fail her, particularly after she became confined to a wheelchair in 2001. Her deep faith was not shaken by her circumstances. In fact, it only deepened. Although Cheryl spent her final years in the colder climes of New England, she was warmed by the opportunity to be with her closest family—doing crosswords with Erin; playing bingo with her grandson, Drew; and sharing a laugh with her granddaughter, Sydney. Through everything Cheryl endured in her final years, that sharp mind of hers never dulled. She loved to wield her knowledge of things far and wide to play trivia and solve crossword puzzles. She was that “smart girl” to the end, an incredible inspiration to the women—and the men—in her life. Cheryl is survived by her daughter, Erin (Chris) Klein of Andover, MA; two brothers, Eugene Bruce, III (Debbie) of Lake Wales, FL and Jim Bruce (Elisa) of Troy, AL; and two grandchildren, Drew and Sydney Klein. Memorial donations in Cheryl’s memory may be made to Reading Is Fundamental, www.rif.org, to support childhood literacy. Her family would like to thank the caring staff of Academy Manor for their extreme compassion during this pandemic.