Dorothea “Di” O’Connor Tyree, born April 3, 1928, passed away on the evening of the 4th of July 2020 (with fireworks literally exploding overhead while patriotic music played from her daughter’s living room) in Jacksonville, Florida where she had spent the last few years to be near her children. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Henry “Deacon” Tyree and young son, Robert FitzGerald Tyree (who died as an infant) and is survived by sons, Henry Tyree, Jr. (Barbara) and Neilan Tyree; and daughter, Tinnon Tyree Froehlich (Mark). She is also survived by three much-loved grandchildren, Diana Neilan, William Henry, and Quentin Edward Froehlich.
In many respects, she was one of the last of her generation. She was the youngest and last of Arthur and Jetta O’Connor children to pass away and also the last of the Tyrees of that generation (both her brother-in-law Karl and sister-in-law Freddie having also preceded her in death). Thus she counts numerous nephews and nieces from both the O’Connor and Tyree families among her most loved. She also saw most, though not all, of her lifelong friends pass in recent years.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she spent the majority of her youth in Brentwood, Massachusetts before leaving for school where she attended Mary Washington College in Virginia. Her professional career began in Alexandria, Virginia where she worked in public relations at Eastern Airlines at its very height.
It was there in D.C. that her older brother Arthur introduced her to one of the military members under his command: Henry. They courted for a while before he brought her back to Florence…where he proposed to his non-swimmer girlfriend while pushing her around Shoals Creek off Shaler Roberts, Sr.’s lake house. Henry gently suggested that he would take the swimming tube away if she said no. She said yes. And they were very happily married until his very untimely death from cancer on Christmas Eve in 1990.
Di and Henry had a wide range of friends throughout the Shoals and their social, church, community, and family lives were quite happy. As founding members of Turtle Point Yacht & Country Club, that was the setting for many of their most wonderful times. They enjoyed being a part of the Florence Dinner Club among other groups and Di was an early and enthusiastic member of the Service League. She was also a longtime enthusiast (and occasional performer) in the Florence Summer Music Theater, thanks to her devotion to its founder, Alan Flowers. Mrs. Tyree also was thrilled to support a number of other cultural institutions such as Muscle Shoals Concert Series, Zodiac Theatre, the Kennedy Douglas Art Center, the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art, and the Ritz Theater, to name a few. She could always be counted on for volunteer efforts, and, most of all, enthusiastic audience support for virtually every show she ever saw. Her most common post-show response? “That was one of THE best things I have EVER seen!”
Di gently put her toe back in the water when it came to her career as the spokesperson for Servicemaster in the late 60s – on the radio, in newspaper ads, etc. “I wouldn’t dream of entertaining before I had my carpets cleaned… neither should YOU!” When her children were grown, she returned to full time work for her friends, the Klibanoffs, at The Bootery, one of the town’s favorite boutiques for many decades. That lit a fire in her and from there she landed the coveted position of Executive Director of the United Way of Florence.
Her primary initial goal was to link all the United Way organizations across the Quad Cities…and promptly did so, becoming the first Executive Director of the United Way of the Shoals. During her tenure, she readily raised over a million dollars thanks to the help of so many companies, organizations, and individuals throughout the area.
During some of the national organization’s most challenging days, Di was recognized on a national level for her ability to ensure that as much as 97 percent of the donations went directly to the organizations her local office served. She was later enormously proud to be named as one of the members of the second-ever class of honorees in Leadership Alabama, Class of 1991/92.
Di later devoted her unmatched energy and enthusiasm to the creation of an outpost of the Alabama Institution of the Deaf & Blind in Tuscumbia after thinking simply, “To think this is Helen Keller’s hometown and people here have to go to Talladega for help? That’s ridiculous.” So she led the charge to raise the funds to build their offices across from Ivy Green and to fund the programs that would give local neighbors the help they need “right here at home.”
Her final wishes were that people continue to support both the United Way of the Shoals and the AIDB.
She thoroughly enjoyed her near lifelong membership in the First Presbyterian Church of Florence and was enormously proud of the Tyree/Willingham history with the church, which dates back to the 1800s. So the family has requested that all memorials go to the church.
Or send to: First Presbyterian Church of Florence, 224 E. Mobile Street, Florence, Alabama 35630, 256-764-2081
Di will be properly memorialized at First Presbyterian Church on October 2, 2020 (if community health/pandemic issues allow) – which marks the date of her 66th wedding anniversary with Henry. The service will be at 2 p.m. followed by family visitation in the Fellowship Hall in the ground level floor of the four-story addition that her husband designed and that is the home of his memorial chandelier. Burial will follow at Florence City Cemetery in the Tyree/Willingham family plot where she will be laid to rest next to Henry and Fitz.
Memorial attendees are asked not to wear black, but to, instead, wear their brightest and most festive colors. (Men, too! And women are encouraged to wear their biggest and best hats as a salute to her well-known favorite accessory.)
She first met many lifelong friends at her wedding reception at UNA’s Roger’s Hall, hosted by her new mother-in-law Clyde Willingham Tyree who had grown up there as the daughter of the revered former president at the start of the 20th Century, Dr. Henry Willingham. It therefore seems quite fitting that her eulogy will be given by former UNA president Dr. Robert L. Potts who has long been a favorite church and family friend and with whom she worked closely on behalf of the United Way and AIDB for many years.
If there was music put to that wedding reception when Dorothea was truly introduced to the Shoals? It might be some of the lyrics from the late Jerry Herman’s title song from “Mame” that included:
“Whoever thought a Yankee would put our little Dixie belles to shame?”
Well this was one redheaded, Boston Irish Catholic Yankee who traded all that in when she married Henry (except the red hair). Truly lifelong friendships across multiple generations began that day.
Finally, it’s worth noting that she barely had a sick day in her life, but was diagnosed with breast cancer on August 1, 2016. Ever the tireless fighter, she beat it back…until it returned in January of this year. So the family also encourages you all to support the many great causes (local, state, and national) so engaged in the battle to ultimately defeat cancer. The family thanks all of her many healthcare providers and others (particularly staff and friends in Jacksonville at Riverside Presbyterian Church, Apartments and, for the last nine months, the assisted living wing of their House) for their dear attention and kindness over the years. They also thank their myriad of friends who have been a joy to the entire family…forever.
