I met Cheryl Daskas, co-owner of Tender in Birmingham, in the late ’90s when I was freelancing for the former lifestyle magazine published by the Principal Shopping District (now Birmingham Shopping District), where she served as a board member for 20 years. Cheryl oversaw the magazine’s content, among other duties there, and she edited my articles with care, although back then I was so intimidated by what her sister Karen Daskas lovingly refers to as her “larger than life” presence that I would sigh with relief when she was pleased with my work.
Not that she was mean about it. She never was. As I got to know Cheryl, a former model with piercing blue eyes and a shock of red hair, I learned how much she cared for everything she involved herself in. Her confidence and ability to command a room and speak up when she felt something was wrong made her the perfect person to fight for the betterment of the people and businesses that called her beloved Birmingham home, which she often did at Birmingham City Commission meetings.
But even though she could make noise when she needed to, it was what she did quietly that showed her true character, such as giving Todd Skog of Todd’s Room his entrepreneurial start by hosting his first location in the basement of Tender or financially backing the then-unknown Ali Cheaib of The Birmingham Tailor. Or bravely fighting — and beating — multiple cancers over 15 years.
“She never, ever wanted anybody to know,” recalls Karen Daskas, who handles the buying
for the store, while Cheryl did the selling. “She was a very proud person and very strong and very tough. She didn’t want people to feel sorry for her. And she wouldn’t stay home. She’d say, ‘Oh no, my ladies are coming in today to see me.’”
Andi Rehm, an employee of Tender since 1998, and honorary little sister to Cheryl and Karen, notes, “She made people feel great about themselves.”
And she did this in completely unexpected ways. A Tender customer, who Karen says clearly worked to give to her daughters and never herself, came in the store one day to purchase one thing for each of her girls, and Cheryl noticed the woman was carrying a cracked plastic purse. That Christmas, she sent a designer handbag to that customer.
Claudia Sills of Birmingham, a Tender customer since the early 2000s and later a neighbor of the Daskas sisters, who says Cheryl got her out of her all-black wardrobe into wearing color again, notes that Cheryl made customers feel comfortable being themselves.
“I think many of us feel the molecules in the air change with her,” Sills says. “Cheryl and the team she nurtured created an environment that made you want to visit. She made me laugh so often. I felt welcome
whenever I saw her.”
Cheryl Daskas passed away on June 9 in her sleep at home in Birmingham.
This story originally appeared in the September 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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