Anita Cherry

{{Short description|American coal miner}}

Anita Cherry was an American practical nurse and coal miner. She and Diana Baldwin, hired as miners in 1973, are believed to have been the first women to work in an underground coal mine in the United States. They were the first female members of United Mine Workers of America to work inside a mine.{{cite web |last1=Armstrong |first1=Holly |title=A Brief History of Women in Mining |url=https://blog.dol.gov/2022/03/22/a-brief-history-of-women-in-mining |work=DOL Blog |publisher=U.S. Department of Labor |date=22 March 2022 }}{{cite news |last1=Klemesrud |first1=Judy |title=In Coal Mine No. 29, Two Women Work Alongside the Men |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/05/18/archives/in-coal-mine-no-29-two-women-work-alongside-the-men-kin-tried-to.html |work=The New York Times |date=18 May 1974 }}{{cite news |title=Two Women Make History as Kentucky Miners |date=26 December 1973 |newspaper=Toledo Blade |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WvNOAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22Anita+Cherry%22&pg=PA11&article_id=7479,4167861 }}

Cherry and Baldwin were hired by the Beth-Elkhorn Coal Company in Jenkins, Kentucky.{{cite news |last1=Baisden |first1=Harry I. |date=6 September 1974 |title=Two Women Break Sex Bar in Modern Coal Mine |newspaper=The Evening News |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OAdHAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22Anita+Cherry%22&pg=PA10&article_id=950,911016 }}{{cite thesis |last1=Gearhart |first1=Dona G. |date=1995 |title='Surely, a wench can choose her own work!' Women coal miners in Paonia, Colorado, 1976-1987 |publisher=University of Nevada, Las Vegas |doi=10.25669/83uw-c7cr }}