Earlier this month, on a brisk Saturday night, Tim O'Doherty climbed up on the bar of his downtown watering hole. Punctuating the end of a week celebrating the career of one Tom Sherry, and ending his 32-year residency in our collective living rooms, his gathered friends and colleagues went quiet. Then, in the way they know best down at O'Doherty's, St. Tim paid tribute to the man of the hour — by leading everyone in song.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...
Remarkably on key for how many glasses o' Guinness had been poured, Sherry stood beaming in the center of this spontaneous choir. Perhaps his career flashed in front of his eyes. Starting at KREM for $7 an hour when that was still legal. Turning bring-your-dog-to-work-day into a canny career move. Spending Friday nights every fall around Eastern Washington and North Idaho, helping families renew the traditions of high school football. Driving turkeys, every November, to where they were needed most.
You make me happy, when skies are gray...
Back in 1995, during the Inlander's second-ever Best of the Inland Northwest readers poll, Sherry won. Then a funny thing happened. He kept... on... winning. At first we chalked it up to Doppler, his golden retriever, who in 1998 started getting votes of his own. But even after Doppler trotted off to that great dog park in the sky, his human kept winning. Inlander writers grappled with how to explain the Sherry Phenomenon that has now run 28 straight years. "What is his appeal?" we wondered in 2004. "Is there a Tom Sherry formula? Is there a class you can take?"
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you...
We soon realized Sherry was like a cozy warm front that just sits there and won't budge. By 2015, we suggested maybe we should just rename the category "Best Weathercaster Who's Not Tom Sherry" and give everyone else a chance. If he ever considered that, maybe it was in 2017, when one writer put his never-ending streak in perspective: "He's been racking up Best of wins since before I was born." Too much perspective, maybe.
Please don't take my sunshine away.
Sorry, but even an Irish serenade couldn't change his mind: Our beloved Tom Sherry has retired. You'll probably see him driving turkeys or taking in a local football game in the years to come, but he's officially passing his golden weather clicker to the next generation. And if there's one lesson they can take from the Legend of Tom Sherry, it's this: Get a dog.
2nd PLACE: Kris Crocker, KXLY
3rd PLACE: Leslie Lowe, KHQ
