The Beginning…

Charlene Inez Wynkoop-Berry, born on May 11, 1953 at Flushing Hospital in Queens, New York, came home to join her parents, Herman and Inez Wynkoop and two older brothers, Roger and David in Corona, Queens. In 1960, the family moved out to Westbury, New York, to the same house on the corner.   Charlene's mom became active in the community as she joined with other African American mothers and formed The Mother's Group of Westbury.  She also started a dance school  where Charlene was first a student and then a  teacher. Charlene was the kind of person butterflies would land on.  Children and animals gravitated to her.  Her smile was pure joy to share and her voice was a force of nature. Charlene's talent as a singer was recognized early and, throughout her school years, she was  part of many musical  theatre productions.   She was also usually called on to sing the national anthem at important school events.  She remembered her high school years as a busy but happy time studying dance, theater and voice while keeping a good academic record.  

Those studies continued at Loretto Heights College in Denver, Colorado. There, she also sang with a local band and performed in regional theater.  She left Loretto Heights early to live in Manhattan. While auditioning and performing in shows, including a national tour of Kismet,  Charlene worked at Bloomingdales as boutique manager and enjoyed a buying trip to Paris. In the early eighties she moved back home and finished her undergraduate degree at SUNY College at Old Westbury. She  became involved with student government and the Performing Arts Student Organization (PASO).  Her senior recital was a combination of dance, music, and theater, so she received three A's for the effort. After graduation, she began teaching dance classes there, under Afida Derby, head of the dance department. And continued there to direct and choreograph shows well into the 1990’s.                    

Family & Teaching

It was at SUNY College at Old Westbury that Charlene met her future husband, Tom Berry, a saxophone and cello student.  Soon they had a daughter Jeanette, who spent time tied to Charlene in a snugglie while she taught dance classes. Tom and Charlene were married on Valentine’s Day, by Tom’s father, a United Methodist Minister, in Charlene’s parents' home. Nineteen months after Jeanette was born, Christopher was born. He too would sometimes attend dance classes and at least once joined Jeanette in a playpen as Tom rehearsed with Makanda Ken McIntyre's CAAMO orchestra in a Tribeca loft. Charlene and Tom worked at a  local restaurant and private affairs as a sextet playing ballads, bossa, blues, and swing. 

Charlene attended Westbury public schools from elementary (Powell’s Lane) through high school (Westbury High School). After her marriage, she remained in Westbury and often worked as choreographer of the annual Westbury High musical, as well as worked with Westbury Kicks, the High School Kick Line.  She also developed and ran a summer musical theater program for youth of school age sponsored by the Westbury Mother's Group. The group put on original shows written, choreographed and directed by Charlene. 

Charlene began teaching at Nassau Community College as SUNY College at Old Westbury unfortunately disbanded their music and dance program.  She taught history of black dance, communication and other courses under the tutelage of Ken Jenkins, head of the Africana Studies Department.  Each semester, she took her classes into NYC to spend a few hours at the Schoenberg library, doing research for their final reports and having lunch at either Sylvia's (usually) or Amy Ruth's (occasionally). Sometimes a visit to the Lincoln Center Library was  involved.