Tye Noorda - Obituary
Lewena “Tye” Noorda , born December 26, 1923, returned to her Heavenly Father on April 5, 2014 where she was greeted by her eternal companion, Raymond John Noorda.
Tye grew up in Freedom, Utah, with her parents Franklin Adolph Taylor and Ellenor Bywater Taylor, and her brother, Blythe. After graduating high school in Moroni, Tye moved to Salt Lake City to work as a secretary, skilled in typing and shorthand, and a model, while attending the University of Utah to study her true passions: Speech and Drama.
After building an impressive modeling portfolio in New York City, and receiving the stage name “Tye” from Nat King Cole’s manager, Tye returned to SLC. There she met Raymond John Noorda. After six actual dates and one year of daily correspondence, Tye and Ray were married on August 4, 1950. The marriage was solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple.
Tye was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where she served diligently in a variety of church callings, usually employing her passion for the dramatic arts. Tye was a gifted musician, writer, director, and poet, and wrote many songs and hymns. She loved to write and direct road shows and had a wonderful sense of humor, which she incorporated into her songs and poems.
Ray’s business career took the family to many states around the U.S, and later in life they turned their success to philanthropy, generously donating to numerous causes and institutions in Utah and in the developing world, as well as financing the Ray and Tye Noorda Oral Health Sciences Building at the University of Utah, a theatre at a the Utah Valley University, and Scenic View Academy. Ray and Tye’s foundations, Angel Partners, Worth of a Soul, and The Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation are legacies that will live on and continue Ray and Tye’s philanthropic vision.
Tye was preceded in death by her daughter, Val Marie, and her husband, Raymond John Noorda, and is survived by four sons, thirteen grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.