Lorna Byrne

Lorna Byrne, age 104, of Cave Junction, died Friday, September 17, 2010 at Redwood Terrace.

A funeral service will be at 1:00 p.m., Thursday, September 23, 2010 at Illinois Valley Funeral Directors. Interment will follow at Laurel Cemetery in Cave Junction.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made at any branch of South Valley Bank & Trust (formerly Home Valley Bank) to Three Rivers School District – Lorna Byrne Memorial Fund to benefit Three Rivers School District Libraries.

She was born January 12, 1906 in Cave Junction to Edward & Jennie (Gibbs) Tycer, part of a pioneer family who crossed the plains in 1853. They first settled in the Willamette Valley at Brownsville and shortly thereafter moved to Cave Junction. On the family farm five children were born – four girls and a boy. In 1923 Lorna graduated Kerby Union High School. At age 18 she started teaching 31 children in 8 grades at Holland School, a one-room schoolhouse. Later she attended Southern Oregon Normal School and graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in Education with a teaching credential and over the years continued to update her credentials. On October 5, 1926 in Cave Junction she married Desmond William Byrne. During World War II when she took her daughter to Lewis & Clark College she started a job at Willamette Iron & Steel at the Portland Shipyards. The company asked her stay and she did for three years. During that time she helped build the ship that her future son-in-law was to be stationed on in the Pacific Theater. Through the years she taught at White School, Payne School and later Kerby School when they consolidated all schools in the Illinois Valley. In 1974 after 50 years of teaching, Lorna retired. In 1976 when the new Illinois Valley High School was completed, a middle school started in the old high school building and was named Lorna Byrne Middle School in honor of her legacy and many years of teaching.

Lorna especially enjoyed tutoring students and her grandchildren; yard work; and flower and vegetable gardening. She loved time spent with her sisters and mother; time spent in the library; reading; and politics. She was a dyed in the wool “New Deal Democrat”; loved Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy; and was a staunch supporter and member of the Josephine County Democratic Party.

Survivors include a daughter, Barbara Lydick of Eugene, Oregon; two grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; three great-great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.