When the tornado hit, 60-year-old Rena Lyles was holding hands with her husband, trying to take shelter.
ST. LOUIS — Previously, a three-story brick home in the Fountain Park neighborhood stood proud, but it has now been reduced to mere rubble and dust. For one family, it was their everything.
An EF3 tornado made landfall in the St. Louis area on Friday, carving a destructive path over 20 miles long. The fierce storm left utility poles broken, homes and businesses in ruins, and resulted in five fatalities.
On Monday, 5 On Your Side verified with family members that 60-year-old Rena Lyles was among the five individuals who lost their lives when the tornado struck north St. Louis on Friday night.
She died inside the only home she had ever known.
Lyles was a mother of five daughters, a grandmother of eight, a great-grandmother, and the wife of Allan Lyles, her partner of 25 years. Together, they tried to seek shelter as the storm approached. But she didn’t make it.
“There were no sirens,” Rena’s daughter, Cieara Scott, told 5 On Your Side. “So they started to go to the basement because the lights were flickering.”
Rena and Allan were holding hands when the tornado hit their home on Bayard Avenue. The force of the wind ripped through the house, throwing Rena backward into her bedroom and sending Allan tumbling down the basement stairs.
“It threw my mom backward, and it threw him down the basement steps,” Cieara said. “Once she got hit backwards, the dresser fell on top of her. Then the house collapsed on her.”
Allan was pulled from the rubble, injured, but alive. But Rena was missing.
“Once the house crumbled down on them, someone came and pulled him out, but he could not find my mom,” Cieara said. “So after some hours, they finally dug my mom out. And when they dug her out, she was gone.”
Cieara said her dad was praying she would make it out alive.
“This was the love of his life. They were married for 25 years. That was his all. That was his heart. That was his queen,” she said of her father, a local pastor.
Cieara described her mother as her best friend, the anchor of their family, and her block.
“This is a very difficult time for us right now, and we’re just trying to be the daughters that my mom raised us to be,” said Cieara. “I just want everyone to remember her by her love and smile. And how she loved everybody and welcomed everyone in.”
The home had been in the family for generations when it was passed down to Rena at the age of nine. Neighbors told 5 On Your Side that they all loved “Mrs. Rena.”
“She was very nice. Beautiful lady. If you needed anything, she would help you out. “She was very remarkable. She’d do her best for anybody,” said her neighbor Edward White. “Put Mrs. Rena in your prayers by the blessing of God.”
Rena’s parents were longtime block captains on the street, and Rena carried on that legacy, known by neighbors as someone who always showed up with help, warmth, and heart.
“It’s really hard because we don’t even have little things to remember her by,” Cieara said. “Because it’s all gone.”
From childhood memories to decades of milestones, it was all inside that house.
“It’s so hard,” she said. “Just knowing that the only house that you have stayed in is gone. The only thing that you had as a family to remember is gone. Every part of my mom is gone.”
Now, Rena’s five daughters are left grieving a woman they say gave everything to her family, her community, and her faith.
“I never expected that on the 16th, my mother would be gone,” Cieara said. “We’re just trying to hold on.”
Rena’s family is now in the process of planning her funeral.
“We’re really trying to be strong and trying to be able to have the best funeral and burial for her that she could have,” her daughter said. “It’s just going to be really hard, but with God and with just prayer, we are going to make it through.”
They hope the community she helped nurture for decades will never forget the woman who gave so much of herself to it.
