Marguerite Paula Tyree peacefully completed a rich and full earthly life on Thursday, March 24th, at home in Turlock with her children beside her. She was 93. Beloved mother of seven and wife of artist Ralph Burke Tyree, she created and nurtured a family bound together firmly by love and caring. Her devotion to family carried her through many wonderful and often challenging adventures, as the family moved often, to exotic locales such as the Pacific islands of Guam, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii as well as the California towns of Oceanside, Oakland, Berkeley, Mariposa, Crows Landing, Keyes, Ceres and Turlock. Throughout their many moves, Marguerite always surrounded her family with a warm and happy home.
Margo, as she was known to those closest to her, was a strong, creative and resourceful woman. She was an artist and an accomplished seamstress, a natural gardener and wonderful cook; she was a prolific reader of varied books and magazines and an avid writer of letters. Above all else, she was a homemaker and a devoted wife and mother, always offering gentle encouragement to her children to express themselves creatively, without limit, and to pursue their passions. She gifted them with technical and scientific toys to inspire their inquisitive minds, read to them often and engaged them in a wide variety of art and craft projects.
Marguerite was born on October 1, 1922 in Livermore, California to Flossie and Cesar Almeida, the second of eight children. The Almeida family moved to Livingston when she was a young girl where she met her future husband, Ralph, while attending Livingston High School. After another family move to Turlock, she attended and graduated in 1940 from Turlock High School. After high school, Marguerite worked at Shoob’s Photographic Studio in Modesto, where she learned to retouch negatives and hand color portraits, talents she employed for many years. She also posed as a photographer’s model, and beautiful portraits of her often graced the windows of the studio. She completed a correspondence course in commercial designing and aspired to a career as a fashion designer. Margo and Ralph, a U.S. Marine, married in 1945 after a passionate wartime romance, and she devoted herself to her husband and their growing family.
Margo was a seamstress par excellence! She designed and fabricated clothing for herself and her siblings beginning when she was in grade school, and later sewed for her own children, grandchildren and select clients. She created imaginative costumes, fancy and everyday dresses, shirts, suits, and wedding garments, anything that required a fine sense of design, a keen eye and a steady and talented sewing hand, and she was always willing to alter clothing for family and friends. She loved to crochet, embroider, do crewelwork and beading, and tried her hand at crafts such as cloisonné, leather embossing and ceramic painting. Within the last several years of her life, she took up watercolor painting and enjoyed painting landscapes and flowers.
The lovely gardens that Margo cultivated reflected her love of beauty in nature. While living in the islands, she grew to love tropical flowers such as orchids, plumerias, hibiscus and ginger, and she planted a variety of trees, colorful flowers and unusual shrubs to grace the home in Turlock where she spent the last 36 years of her bountiful life. Her family and friends were always welcomed by a profusion of color and lush greenery in the back yard. And for over 20 years until her retirement at 79 years of age, she created the most splendid floral arrangements at the Turlock Flower Shop for weddings, parties and other heartfelt occasions.
Those who will always remember her with so much love and immense gratitude include her children and their spouses, Gregory Tyree, Michael Tyree, Stephen and Toni Tyree, Daniel Tyree, Marda and Jim Herbert, Jeffrey and Carson Tyree and Marc and Aldiva Tyree; her 14 grandchildren; her 9 great grandchildren and all their spouses and partners. She is equally loved and remembered by her brothers and sisters and their spouses, Louis and Tina Almeida, Marvee Andre, George and Stephanie Almeida, Maxine Younger, Gary and Cecelia Almeida, and her many nieces and nephews. Preceding and welcoming her into the peace and eternal joy of heaven are her beloved husband, Ralph Burke Tyree, who passed away in 1979, her father and mother, Cesar and Flossie Almeida, as well as her sisters and brothers-in-law, Mabel and Frank Sarmento, Maria and Alfred Jorge and Clarence Andre.
A rosary for Marguerite will be held at Allen Mortuary in Turlock on Thursday, March 31st beginning at 7:00 pm with visitation beforehand from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. A funeral mass will be held at 1:30 pm on Friday, April 1st at Sacred Heart Church in Turlock with a brief graveside service to follow at Turlock Memorial Park. There will be a reception following the service at Allen Mortuary Event Center in Turlock. All who wish to share our celebration of Margo’s life are welcome to attend any of the events. Please share your memories at www.AllenMortuary.com.
