Johnny Ray Tyree

Johnny Ray Tyree, 72, passed from this life on May 2, 2025 at the Rogers Mercy hospital after a short illness. He was born on August 9, 1952 in Bentonville, Arkansas to John Kenneth Tyree and Carrie Lee (Tisher) Tyree. He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother, Paul Wade Tyree, and the love of his life, Virginia Haskins. Virginia and Johnny shared their lives together until she passed away in May of 2024. He had been devoted to her for some 35 years.

Johnny was a lifelong resident of Northwest Arkansas and watched the water rise and fill Beaver Lake. He often found a house near the lake in some of the more remote areas just so he could be near the water. Johnny finished high school in the Polytech School in Fayetteville where he learned and excelled at automotive body and fender repair. He was offered a teaching position at the school when he graduated, but declined. He worked at the old swimming pool at Lake Atalanta in Rogers as a lifeguard. He also worked at a number of service stations for Lucille and Oscar Deckard for several years. His natural skills working on motor maintenance and repair taught by his dad and bodywork learned from school came in handy during those years. Johnny later came in contact with truck driving and began to work with Loyd McCord Trucking out of Springdale and he spent many years hauling produce. He would take chicken products to California and bring back produce from California. Besides driving, Johnny worked in the shop repairing and maintaining the truck fleet that McCord had. He earned his living until he retired driving a truck. Along the way Johnny also drove a cement truck for Arkola for several years. Cement poured in the 1990’s may have been poured by him.

Living next to the lake and being around boats etc, it was a natural step to become acquainted with boat motors and begin to repair them. He worked at the Horseshoe Bend Marina for a time before it was moved around the cove to its current location. He was finally able to purchase property with easy access to the lake.

Johnny’s friendly easy manner with people brought him into contact with a lot of people that he knew and was close to. As a teenager he earned the nickname of “BuckShot”. You can ask any of the family about how he got it. He was always willing to help anyone that needed help and often made new friends by helping them repair one kind or another of many different motorized vehicles.

Johnny also loved and played music. As a teenager, he learned to play a double-necked guitar and as well as electric and acoustic guitars. He and his brother and some friends had a band for a while. Perhaps some of that came from a male relative about 4 generations back who was a champion fiddle player and also an aunt that besides a steel guitar, could play a number of country instruments.