By: Alyssa Ochss | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published June 6, 2025
ST. CLAIR SHORES — This St. Clair Shores woman grew up in the Shores and tells younger generations to love one another.
Vivian Marie (Cobb) Tyrer turned 100 on May 26 and celebrated it that weekend surrounded by friends and family.
She has five children, 12 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and a few step grandchildren, some who were present at the party.
Vivian moved to St. Clair Shores in 1934 when the city was still developing and Nine Mile Road was the main thoroughfare. She said they moved to the city since her father passed away that year and her mother used the insurance to purchase a home.
“Otherwise, he had always liked the Shores, so that’s how we came here to the Shores,” Vivian said.
She went to South Lake during her school years, stating it was the most prominent school in the area for sports at the time.
“We had trophies, trophies, trophies,” Vivian said. “It was a beautiful group.”
She went on to say Edsel Ford donated the library to the school.
The streets in St. Clair Shores at the time were made of dirt and there were many ditches. Vivian said 13 Mile Road had one of the ditches. There was also a bank, a movie house, many different businesses, a pier at 11 Mile Road and more.
“We really were a family in the Shores,” Vivian said. “If you look at the names, they’re named after the families in the Shores.”
She gave examples such as Fresard and Allor, and said many of them were related to each other.
Vivian also called the South Lake district family, remembering classmates who died in service in the armed forces. Many South Lake students, Vivian said, worked at Jefferson Beach and it was the main meeting spot.
When Vivian graduated, she worked at Parke-Davis before she went to Washington D.C. and worked as a clerk and in finance for the Maritime and War Shipping Administration for two years. After that she came back to the Shores and met her husband who had returned home from overseas. She remembers fun times spent at Veterans Memorial Park, hosting reunions. Vivian’s husband passed away in 1998 and they were married over 50 years.
Doug Tyrer, one of Vivian’s sons, said he was number four of the five siblings and that he had a good childhood. He said his mother was born into the Great Depression in the 1920s. She moved to the Standish area for a little bit before returning to the Shores.
Vivian said over the years she’s had many highs and lows, saying she’s “had it up in the mountaintops and down in the valleys.”
“They said, ‘What do you accredit your long life for?’” Vivian said. “Well, I’ll tell you what. I don’t know what I accredit my life to. But I do know that I can tell when I’m home in the Shores, because by the water you have a different breathing in and breathing out, I guess you say.”
She further explained in other cities she feels closed in.
“So people leave the Shores, but they come back to the Shores and the Shores is a wonderful place to be,” Vivian said.
She tells younger generations to love one another and to get to know one another because they really are like a family.
“Enjoy one another and seek the Lord,” Vivian said.