Obituary of Tamera Jo Conrad
Conrad, Tamera Jo “Tammy” (Rootlieb)
Issaquah,WA/Churchville: May 20, 2017, with her loving family by her side. Survived by her husband; Stanley Conrad; daughter, Abby Conrad; mother, Sharon Jo Rootlieb; brother, Mark Rootlieb; niece, Starla Rootlieb; beloved bull dog, Josephine. For more information or to leave a memory please visit, www.walkerbrothersfh.com.
Graveside service will be held Saturday, May 27, at 10:00 am in St. Vincent DePaul Cemetery, 40 N. Main St. Churchville.
Tammy was born on October 12, 1964 in Portland, Oregon to Sharon Jo & Bernard Rootlieb. She was a tomboy who loved getting into mischief and roughhousing with her younger brother, Mark. As she grew up, she adored her grandmother’s makeup and jewelry and would walk up and down the street decorated in high heels and hats. Her favorite activity, though, was wreaking havoc in the neighborhood and at home, known by the neighbors as “Tammy the Terrible”. As a teen, she loved all her friends dearly and would take off for sleepovers, movies, and skating every weekend. Her grandparents, Josephine and Mick Richterich would take her on frequent and spontaneous vacations to places such as the Oregon coast, Montana, and California. Tammy loved dancing to disco and hip hop music!
Tammy graduated from Andrew Jackson High School and continued onto Portland State University. After her college career, she continued her education and learned sales and the ins and outs of residential and investment real estate. Tammy met her husband in Bellevue WA at the McCloud’s Nightclub. That was the end of clubbing for the both of them as they settled into their relationship and marriage on August 31, 1990. Together, they had one beautiful, lovely daughter, Abby, in 1994. With a knack for sales, Tammy had a successful career at Nordstrom for over a decade and could sell more part time than many could working full time. She left Nordstrom to raise her daughter and began her career in owning and managing rental property alongside her husband “Stan the Landlord”. She was the brains of the operation, he was the brawn. She progressed and eventually obtained her real estate license specializing in rental and investment property sales and management along with residential sales for John L. Scott Real Estate in the Seattle Eastside area.
Tammy was the hostess with the mostess! She loved having guests and adored cooking for friends and family (especially her Thanksgiving feasts). Her cupboard was stuffed with cookbooks that were a combination of old recipes, magazine clippings, printouts, and handwritten recipes. Some of her favorites were spaghetti and homemade meatballs, seafood puttanesca, steamed clams and trying new recipes.
Stan and Tammy bought a vacation home in Eastern Washington and together enjoyed frequent trips to the sunshine. Laying in the sun with a full ice water, relaxing next to their pool, which was her favorite pastime in the summer. Cooking was her daily hobby and loved cooking meals large enough to feed an army, but it was for her family of three. Her favorite things were jewelry, clothing, makeup all things glamorous! Day in and day out, Tammy was all about the look, and she definitely had it. She looked sharp for everything, from special events to a trip to the grocery store.
To wind down, Tammy and Stan would enjoy a glass of wine and watch her favorite shows, Little Women, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Sopranos, Christmas Vacation and classic old movies. She listened to all music, from Alan Jackson to Snoop Dogg, Patsy Cline and Tony Bennett.
As a little kid, Tammy made sure she was a trouble maker. From making a tar hat and shoes out of the neighbor’s newly poured driveway, to collecting crickets in her lunchbox and handing it to her mother (subsequently having a thousand crickets hopping around the house), she made sure to find trouble.
As a mother and wife, she made sure to have a beautiful and cleanly household full of decorations and the smell of good food in the air. She took excellent pride in her home and family. Animals were a passion of hers and always kept a variety around, from cats and dogs, to chickens and ducks (and the occasional rescued wildlife). She was loud, she was fun, and loved to party, from her grandiose cocktail parties, to driving clients around in her Escalade, she loved bling in her life. But, she never forgot her roots and always treated people, anyone she met, with dignity, respect and a smile.
That beautiful smile….
