Cheryl Annette Muir

A funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015, in St. Agatha Catholic Church in Portland for Cheryl Annette Muir, who died Sept. 4 of breast cancer at age 72. “Cherie,” as she sometimes went by, was born June 28, 1943, in Portland. Her parents were Edward Charles “Bud” Smith and Bernice Hammer Smith. She graduated from St. Agatha Catholic School and St. Mary’s Academy. She was primarily a banker by trade, retiring in about 2003 from U.S. Bank where she worked off and on for more than twenty years. Cherie met her husband, Steven Ray Muir, in high school. They married in 1964. When they learned they couldn’t have natural children they adopted son, Charles, in 1971, and daughter, Shelly, in 1973. Both Catholic, they raised their children in the faith and sent them to Catholic schools. Cherie was an active member of the altar society at St. Agatha. Her many roles included volunteering in the adoration chapel, serving on the hospitality committee and helping count the weekly offertory. Older students might remember her working in the school library. In the 1990s she worked part-time at "The Dandy Lion", a soda fountain in a Westmoreland antique store where she overfed customers with ice cream and milk shakes to the music of Pavarotti. Cherie traveled all over the world, visiting such places as Budapest, Hungary; Slovakia; and Heidelberg Altstadt, Germany. But her favorite place was Kona, Hawaii. Family vacations inspired her to get a Hawaiian-themed tattoo on her ankle. Cherie loved mysteries: Her favorite recent author was Louise Penny. She also read dozens of novels by John Dickson Carr and Erle Stanley Gardner, the latter which she consumed as a child, always insisting on reading them in order. Cancer afflicted her several times. She survived breast cancer, uterine cancer and skin cancer. Complications from treatment eventually led to a colostomy that sapped her enthusiasm for socializing. There were other heartbreaks: She survived the car crash that killed her husband in 2001, lost her nephew Brian to cancer in 2010 and her dog Henry to cancer in 2013. When she was diagnosed with stage-four breast cancer in July, she refused treatment. “I have too many portals in me already,” she said. Cherie died at home five weeks later surrounded by family. She will be remembered for her warm voice, generous nature and involvement in the religious community. Arrangements by Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial Funeral Home. Please click here to view the video tribute Service Information