Cherie Foster Colburn

Oldest of five children, Cherie Foster Colburn was born in Space City 5 days before Christmas in the year of Kennedy's election. She grew up climbing trees and playing kick-the-can in rural East Texas. After receiving a bachelor's degree in political science and history, she headed for law school. Real life had other plans when Cherie and husband Greg discovered they were expecting a baby. She switched gears for a few years, putting her formal education off to raise two daughters.

Arguing for a living no longer held appeal after hormones and homelife. Cherie went back to college, this time following her father's hobby: plants. She started Nature's Tapestry, a landscape design company specializing in Texas native and heirloom plants, in 1993. Besides her commercial and residential design practice, Cherie has worked with schools throughout Texas creating habitat and learning gardens and teaching landscape design for community colleges and the Master Gardener program.

In 1995, the path diverted once again when Cherie became ill and doctors determined being outside exacerbated her illness. She soon found she enjoyed speaking and writing about gardens almost as much as creating them. She began writing articles for magazines and became the gardening columnist for her local newspaper. Her first children's book, "OUR SHADOW GARDEN", was based on a dream she had during the darkest time of her illness and won awards from the American Horticultural Society and Master Gardeners. Illustrated by young artists at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, proceeds from the sale of the book return to the Children's Art Project at M.D. Anderson Children's Hospital.