PASSINGS / Sheryl Flowers
Sheryl Flowers, 42, a producer for Tavis Smiley’s programs on Public Radio International and National Public Radio, died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She had breast cancer.
Flowers was also director of communications for the Smiley Group, which announced her death.
From 2004 until last month she was executive producer of “The Tavis Smiley Show” on PRI, and from 2002 to ’04 she was senior supervising producer of the show on NPR.
The news and information show hosted by Smiley is produced in Los Angeles and airs on 90 stations around the country, including KPCC-FM (89.3).
“The fact that [the show] was successful across a mainstream audience eager for news and information about the African American experience is a tribute to Sheryl’s vision and direction,” Smiley, who also has a TV talk show on PBS, said in a statement. “She had great instincts and insights into stories and issues that were appealing to our listeners.”
Flowers was born on Aug. 26, 1966, in Chicago and grew up in the Bay Area. She received a bachelor’s in journalism from Clark Atlanta University.
She returned to California and became a producer for Pacifica Radio’s investigative public affairs program, “Flashpoints,” and other shows before becoming co-host of “The Morning Show” on KPFA radio in Berkeley.
In 1999, she moved to Washington, D.C., to help market and produce the NPR program “Justice Talking.”
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