The woman who killed Kirstie Alley’s mom in an alcohol-fueled Kansas car crash in 1981 wants “nothing but peace”For the late “Cheers”Star, who passed away Monday after succumbing to colon cancer.
“I send her nothing but peace, and prayers for her family,”Cherrie White (68) said it in an exclusive message to The Post, declining further comments.
The Post reached out also to an Alley representative in order for further comment.
White, who went by the name Cherrie Glymph at the time, was 27 years old when she collided with a car driven by Alley’s father, Robert, according to news reports shared as part of an online remembrance.
Lillian Alley, age 58, was knocked out of her vehicle during the accident at Interstate 135 in Wichita on October 23, 1981. Robert (57 years old at the time) was transported to a hospital for chest injuries. Robert, who was the owner of a lumber company, survived and died in 2007 according to an online obituary.
White — who has since moved to Arlington, Texas — told the National Enquirer in 2011 that she “shouldn’t have been driving that night.”
“I had a lot of things on my mind, and I was intoxicated,”White spoke out to the paper. The newspaper published a photograph showing White next to Lillian Alley’s gravestone at Elmwood Cemetery, Augusta, Kansas.
“I was going through a divorce. I stopped by a local club to get something to eat, and I had a few drinks,”She recollected.
White and the Alleys were trying to avoid a separate car crash when White slammed into the back of the Alleys’ car, according to a news report and the Enquirer.
“I blacked out, and when I came to, I saw a woman’s body on the side of the road covered in a sheet. Then I saw paramedics working on a man. I was told later that the female passenger had died and the male driver was taken to the hospital in critical condition,”White made White an appeal to Lillian Alley’s Enquirer. “Mickie.”
“But I never knew the name of the woman I killed. The authorities never told me the victims’ names because the driver was still in the hospital, and they couldn’t release his name. For 30 years I’ve carried the burden of not knowing who I killed.”
The Enquirer reported that White had pleaded guilty in a misdemeanor case of vehicular murder. The outlet said that White was sentenced to six months imprisonment and then served the remainder of the year in an alcohol rehabilitation center and halfway house.
Kirstie Alley alleged in a tweet last yearWhite spent only three months in jail.
White expressed her desire to apologize to Emmy winner two times, but White refused to go. She also told The Enquirer she had written a sad note to Robert Alley (crash survivor) while she was in rehabilitation, which she didn’t know.
“The letter was never mailed, but in it I asked for forgiveness for what I’d done,”White spoke.
Alley recalled her mother’s tragic death and the difficult relationship they shared in press interviews, on social media and in her 2005 memoir “How To Lose Your Ass and Regain Your Life: Reluctant Confessions of a Big-Butted Star.”
“We were very different. But I do understand this. She was raising three kids by herself with no help,”Alley shared this information with Liz Smith in 1998’s Good Housekeeping.
“And I don’t think my mother was cut out to stay home and not work. She didn’t have the temperament. And I think, probably in the long run, that was a disadvantage for her and for us.”
Alley has completed her fourth audition “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”Collette called her to inform her about Friday’s crash. According to an 1982 People magazine article, she returned to Kansas and was informed by Paramount that they wanted her to visit them on Monday.
Lillian Alley’s funeral was scheduled for Tuesday at Zion United Methodist Church in Wichita — so Alley reportedly told her agent, “No way,”Her siblings attempted to convince her otherwise.
People heard that she had called her agent, and was told by her to say: “You call Paramount and tell them my mother is dead, my father is dying. And if they want to see me, I’ll see them Wednesday.”
She then added: “Don’t candy-ass around. This is the greatest tragedy of my life. But if I get ‘Star Trek,’ that will be my happiest day.”
She did land the breakout role of Lt. Saavik — reportedly thanks to eye drops to hide her grief — before going on to star in “Cheers,” “Look Who’s Talking”These are the sequels to its original film and two other films. “Veronica’s Closet.”
In the aftermath of her passing, many co-stars as well as her fans have mourned her.
The full article is available here here
