(Rebecca) Susan Tyree, 77, passed away peacefully in her sleep in Roanoke, VA, on January 21, 2026, following a courageous battle with vascular dementia. Known throughout an exceptionally adventurous lifetime for her rare quality of joie de vivre, Susan's ever-present smile and infectious sense of humor almost always punctuated conversations with her many friends.

Born May 19, 1948, in Clearbrook (Roanoke), to Eddie and Nancy Tyree, Susan was the eldest of three girls in a hard-working family – her mother a full-time RN at Jefferson Hospital and her father a full-time welder for Norfolk-Western.

Following her time at Clearbrook Elementary, Susan graduated from Cave Spring High School in 1966, where she was a proud member of the Drill Team. After classes at Virginia Western Community College, Susan graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond with a B.A. in Anthropology. In 1969, she married Moses Rivers, living in Richmond, Indiana, and taking classes at Earlham College (Quaker), also completing a study of Transcendental Meditation. In 1970, Susan and Moses moved to Paris, France, for six months while visiting numerous significant Van Gogh sites and the city of Marseille.

Following a divorce in 1975, Susan lived in Albuquerque working as a photographer's assistant, helping manage a darkroom and studio, before joining the Peace Corps in 1980, spending three years in Zaire (now Congo), living in a mud hut in a small village just south of the Equator, where she helped develop sources of clean water. She then moved back to Paris for another year in 1984, before returning to the U.S. for an extended visit with her good friend, Annie Lee, in New York City, and then moving with her sister Patti (who was in the Air Force) to Oklahoma.

In 1986, Susan and her sister moved to Denver, where Susan worked for the City of Denver as a Water Quality Investigator for the next 10 years, consistently winning numerous awards and promotions. Susan later returned to Clearbrook in 2003 to help her mom. Susan purchased a house in Callaway in 2004, later meeting and marrying Kent Walton of Boones Mill in 2007.

Throughout their life together, Susan and Kent shared a deep, passionate love for nature, especially trees – Susan as an artist, Kent as an arborist, and both as avid gardeners.

Susan worked at Ferrum Elementary as a reading tutor for pre-K and Kindergarten students identified with difficulties in learning to read. She also worked for many years as an interpreter with the Blue Ridge Farm Museum of Ferrum College, sponsors of the annual "Folklife Festival", where she cooked meals over an open hearth and specialized in baking bread in an outdoor brick oven. Her very favorite event at the "Festival" was the mule-jumping contest, and indeed, mules were one of her all-time favorite animals, with some stiff competition from pigs and dogs.

Throughout her life, Susan was a consummate artist in a variety of mediums – adept in photography and watercolor and known to her fellow potters as "the glaze queen" for her unique ability to create sunning designs of brilliant colors. A long-time member of the Blue Ridge Potters Guild, Susan and her pots were an immensely popular feature at the Guild's annual show.

A long-time attender of the Roanoke Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Susan treasured the extended time spent in silent worship as well as the deep fellowship with other Friends.

Susan loved to travel with Kent, venturing to Oaxaca (Mexico), Spain, Portugal, Greece, Morocco, and Italy (three times). In Morocco, she delighted in riding a camel into sand dunes to watch the sunset in the Sahara, sleeping in a tent in the desert that night.

Given her wide-ranging adventures, it should come as no surprise that Susan's distinct sense of style is best described as "gypsy". As her very good friend Annie Lee put it, "When I first met her, she rode up on a bicycle with her self-tailored 1940s dress flowing and a flowered kerchief around her head. There was an instant bond with our clothing preferences, and she offered to redo vintage clothes to fit me on her pedal sewing machine. In everything, she approached working with and doing for others with a true joy and appreciation of life."

Susan is survived by: her husband, Kent Walton, 76, of Boones Mill; her sisters, Frances Tyree Hudson, 74, of Bedford, and Patti Lynn Tyree, 71, and her husband, Edwin Bok, of Salem; her nephew, Anothony Nelson, 37, his wife, Jenna, and their 20 month old daughter, Lily, all of Roanoke; her niece, Rachel Harbin, 37, her husband, Andrew, and their 4 year old daughter Collette "Lettie", all of Gordonsville; her nephew, Eric Lee Burford, 55, of Roanoke; and her nephew, Cody Lee Hudson, 48, of Richmond.

A memorial service and Celebration of Susan's life will be held on Saturday, February 7, 2026, at 11 a.m. at Roanoke Friends Quaker Meeting House (505 Day Ave., Roanoke, VA).