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Florence E. Wylie
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A Celebration of Life memorial was held Tuesday at the Ceres Christian Church for Florence Elizabeth Wylie, 91, of Modesto. She died Nov. 16, 2010 at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto following a brief illness and stroke.

Born Sept. 26, 1919 in Branscomb, Florence attended schools in Ceres and graduated from Ceres High School in 1937. She was employed during World War II at the Convair aircraft plant in San Diego where she met her future husband, Art, whom she married Feb. 13, 1942 just prior to his posting overseas with the U.S. Army Air Force. Upon his return from the European front, the couple moved to Ceres and then Modesto where they raised their three children. Art and Florence operated a real estate company entitled McHenry Real Estate and later changed the name to Wylie Real Estate. Art was the broker and Florence was a salesman and office manager. They lived in Modesto for 64 years.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, Florence and Art developed property and built new homes, later under the family name of WyldeWood Homes. Ms. Wylie became very proficient at designing new homes and individually produced all the floor plans for the thousands of homes built throughout Modesto entitled WyldeWood Homes.

Mrs. Wylie was also a local poet and writer and penned hundreds of published poems and has won awards locally and in state and national competition. Florence was also a prolific painter, preferring to work in the pastel medium and has many paintings distributed throughout the community via the Central California Art League. She was manager of the Art league for 16 years and also owned and operated her own art gallery, Firenze Galleria, on Scenic Drive for many years. Ms. Wylie enjoyed being at the ocean, her cats, her family and friends and the joy of creativity in the written word, paintings, and even architectural design.

She leaves behind a son, Joe Wylie of Ione; six grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren. She was preceded in deathy by her husband of 64 years, Arthur "Art" Wylie, son John D. Wylie and daughter Cheryl Adrian.

-Ceres Courier/ December 8, 2010