Cynthia Herring, 69, is a teacher, singer, songwriter, and performer who organized Parker’s Schoolchildren’s Group as a singing group in the 1990s.

A native of Davenport, Iowa, Cynthia graduated from Bettendorf High School, the University of Northern Iowa, and the University of Arizona in Tucson.

As a young poet and artist, Cynthia performed under the name Destiny Quibble and rose to fame in the 1980s for her efforts to legalize street performance in Chicago. Her multicultural performance Her ensemble World Nation was a blend of her music career and her experience as an ESL teacher. This inspired her to form the World Nation Group, first in the town of Muscatine, Iowa, then in Parker.

“I was born with a passion and love for people of different cultures,” Cynthia told this reporter of the 2018 reunion film commissioned by Colorado River Natives. “By joining CRIT on her reservation, I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn about the Hopi, Mojave, Chemehuevi and Navajo cultures.”

Cynthia decided to create a record for the Parker area children as a way to celebrate the cultural diversity of the area. She brought instruments from all over the world and stuffed animals for the young children and began rehearsing.

“We recorded it in Hollywood, California,” said Cynthia. “Okay, we’re going to Hollywood to record artists.”

The resulting album, Songs of the Colorado River, was recorded in 1995 at a Los Angeles studio. The album contains traditional music and songs about Parker and La Paz County, written by Cynthia, celebrating local place names and other regional characteristics, each sung. Native language, Spanish, English.

The kids in the group fondly remembered Cynthia in 2018 when she returned to Parker for a reunion at CRIT Fair.

“I think it was the best experience of my life so far,” said one.

Members of the original group took to the stage with their own children to sing songs from the album 23 years after its recording.

After her time in Parker, Cynthia formed the World Nation group in Tampa Bay, Florida, and later Cruisin’ in my Wagon (2013), Walking in a Memory (2017), and School of Fish (2019).

A longtime voting member of the Grammy community, Cynthia donated funds to a variety of causes, including the Caryl Herring Memorial Scholarship Fund she founded in 2012 after her mother passed away. In the spring of 2022, she founded Herring Her Bardeos Foundation, a non-profit charity that supports the arts, education, environment and social justice.

Cynthia passed away on March 6 after a battle with leukemia. She will be fondly remembered by her spouse Katia Valdeos, her family and hundreds of young members of her World Nations Ensemble.The Celebration of Life will be held on her April 8th. Sunday at 11:00 am in Spring Hill, Florida. In honor of Cynthia’s love of helping others through her philanthropic work, instead of flowers, a memorial will be made to the Hering Bardeos Foundation or a check will be sent to the Foundation (PO Box 6652, Spring Hill, Florida 34611).