BENJAMIN PERCY TYREE
1921-1976

Benjamin Percy Tyree was born October 5, 1921, in Alleghany County, Virginia, a son of Charles Wyatt Tyree and Annie Belle Hastings Tyree. He grew up on a farm in the Potts Creek area of Alleghany County, where his father and older brothers ran a timber harvesting business and sawmill.

During most of his life, he was known by his middle name--Percy. His first name, Benjamin, was given to him in honor of the family physician in the Potts Creek area,
Dr. Benjamin Lewis Carter. He was a great admirer of modern medicine and tried unsuccessfully to recruit his son into joining that profession and perhaps helped convince at least one of his son's friends to do so.

He attended Boiling Springs School, where he learned higher mathematics, and that later became his strong suit. He was a Golden Gloves boxer in his youth.

In 1941 he married Hazel Long Tyree (1919-2004), a daughter of Clarence Elmer Long, a member of a large family of railroad men, and Effie Myrtle Morgan Long. Percy and Hazel had two children--a son and daughter--and eventually, two grandsons.

For years, Percy lived with his wife in South Covington and, later, near Morris Hill on the Jackson River. Percy worked for several years at the Westvaco paper mill, as his father had before him, and later helped manage the old Covington Lumber Yard. He was noted for his meticulous blueprint work and exacting material estimations of construction projects as well as fine cabinetmaking. He was exempt from the military after a workplace accident left him with partial use of his right arm and hand. During World War II, he worked at the Bethlehem Steel's shipbuilding facility near Baltimore.

Percy Tyree moved his family to Northwest Washington DC in 1950. He initially worked as a delivery route manager in several food service businesses and later entered the construction business, working on building projects for several major construction firms. He also briefly worked for the Federal Government, renovating buildings at a federally supported university.

He shared his wife's love of reading. And he and his wife both loved working difficult crossword puzzles. He enjoyed the great films and stars of the 1940s and '50s and the variety and comedy shows of that era and their later televised versions. He liked a broad variety of music, as well, and he and his brothers when young seemed to have sometimes performed in a makeshift amateur band.

He was diagnosed with a serous illness in 1976, and died on August 23, 1976, shortly before his 55th birthday.