In memoriam: Tyrene Livingston

Everyone agrees about Tyrene Livingston.

Everyone who knew her, whether for years or even… Everyone agrees about Tyrene Livingston.

Everyone who knew her, whether for years or even by acquaintance, uses the same words over and over.

She was ambitious, confident, determined and encouraging. She was respected. She was respectful. She was hardworking. She was energetic. She was dedicated. She was sincere.

But most of all, Tyrene was adored.

Tyrene Renee Livingston – a 21-year-old Pitt grad student from Roosevelt, N.Y. – died last Friday, when her car accidentally went off the road in east Pittsburgh. Traveling eastbound on US Route 30 west of Center Street, Tyrene lost control of the vehicle, which crossed westbound traffic, struck the curb and went over a wooded hillside, according to a spokesman for the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The spokesman said the crash occurred at 8:52 a.m. She was pronounced dead at the scene within 15 minutes.

But according to her many friends, Tyrene’s influence will live on long past the date on her tombstone.

One person she touched was Pitt senior Ashlee Davis. As an undergraduate at Pitt, Tyrene influenced Davis to become a part of FOCUS, a group founded to strengthen the retention rate of minority students.

Tyrene was a student coordinator at FOCUS and was so fervent about its goals that she would organize library study dates well before finals.

“She would constantly badger us, ‘come on guys, let’s study,'” Davis said.

Teraya White, FOCUS’s advisor, remembers Tyrene as someone who was always supportive of other students and entirely self-motivated.

“Tyrene was the heart of our program, FOCUS could never have been what it was without her,” White said. “She will leave behind a beautiful legacy.”

Through FOCUS, Tyrene and her friend Lindsey Steele coordinated a graduate school tour for minority students at Pitt to visit schools in Washington, D.C. “Tyrene told us ‘guys don’t take this lightly, get some numbers, make some contacts,'” Davis said.

Anne-Elizabeth Johnson was not able to attend the trip to D.C., but she said Tyrene’s vision of success was key in helping her apply to Washington College of Law at American University.

“[Tyrene]