Former writer of Newsday articles about homes Janice Tyler dies at 95

Imagination, a love of arts and crafts and an abundance of talent were liberally bestowed on Janice Tyler.

The Lake Ronkonkoma cottage she and her husband built from the ground up became a showplace of originality after the couple paid $1,000 for the five-acre site in 1950.

Her appreciation of fine design, coupled with an uncommon ability to draw people out, led other homeowners to invite her to chronicle their own experiences with building or renovating in articles for Newsday over three decades, which remain fresh and compelling for their candor and vividly detailed descriptions.

“She was so creative, she never stopped,” said her son, Rick, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. “My parents literally built the house by hand, you know, stone walls, flagstone floor.”

By 1966, they had a six-room homestead — but the upgrades barely paused, as they revamped the interior, a 1977 Newsday article says, adding a greenhouse-like addition and changing windows and doors. Just a few of Jan’s “finishing touches,” the article said, were “stained glass panels,” paintings of hers that were glued to glass, a lamp created from a potato grater and “brick” arches of plaster.

“She didn’t really have any formal education; she did it all on her own,” her son said.

Tyler saw the potential in chance finds that otherwise might have been overlooked.

“She’d come home with something tied to the roof of the car, and turn it into something else,” her son said. That particular find, for example, old wood from a barn, was “repurposed and refinished,” and ended up as wall art in the living room.

Tyler married her husband, Harry — a North Bellmore native who served with the Army in the Pacific during World War II — after the war ended. He died at age 82 in 2001; she died at age 95 on June 1, partly due to complications from COVID-19.

At their Lake Ronkonkoma home, the couple had embarked on a family business, building chicken coops for Tyler’s Hennery.

Harry delivered the eggs to nearby customers, with “their sons begrudgingly doing their part,” according to an obituary Rick wrote that was published in Newsday.

Tyler also explored countless other intriguing questions about the Island. 

“What I appreciated about Jan was her curiosity and enthusiasm about a range of subjects, which served Newsday and its readers well with the quirky and inspiring stories she wrote about life on Long Island,” said Tracy M. Brown, former editor of LI Life, Newsday’s Sunday features section.

"One of my all-time favorites from her was a pair of stories about the history of unusual street names on Long Island. She wrote them years ago, but whenever I drive by or on those streets now I always think of her and how she schooled me and thousands of others on their origin.”

Those oddball street names, for instance, include Locust Valley's Skunks Misery Road, which "takes its name from a swamp," Tyler wrote, which was turned into a dump — and then became "a handy fast-food stop for large numbers of skunks." 

"The odor was said to be so bad," she continued, "that people wondered how even the skunks could tolerate it."

Tyler's articles about what led homeowners to make certain choices often begin with them speaking directly to the reader.

For example, “You have to think young, keep mind and body alert as you get older,” Bea Keyser, a homeowner relates, explaining why she and her husband had their home designed around a 20-by-30-foot indoor swimming pool.

Said Tyler’s editor, Barbara Schuler, former assistant managing editor for features: “Jan was a tireless reporter who turned her love of design into a thriving freelance career.”

Continued Schuler: “Always on the lookout for homes that represented the Long Island lifestyle, she had a vast knowledge of local architects and their work. She could truly make a room come alive.”

When Rick was a youngster, Tyler, quite gifted at drawing, created a “girlie” dinosaur with a coy look. Though her son had expected something ferocious, his classmates envied him.

His childhood bedroom featured a jungle drawing; the Rocky Point natural food store he opened much later with his brother relied on many of her design solutions, such as the tops for storage barrels and jars.

At times, her artworks and creative solutions surprised her two sons. “It was like the elves came and went in before we opened,” Rick said. His brother, Drew, of Shoreham, lost his battle with cancer in 2020.

Even in her later years, when her vision was failing, Tyler remained an artist, creating “Harry Potter” type boxes for her grandchildren, with drawings and cutouts, now regarded as heirlooms.

Tyler's survivors include an older sister, Evelyn Fiore, 104, of Connecticut, and two grandsons, Drake, who lives in Manhattan, and Sean, from Levittown, Pennsylvania.