Neighbor Remembers Budd Lynch as 'Nicest Person You Could Meet'

A neighbor of the late Budd Lynch, Tonia Rosalee Deliz, remembers him as a wonderful, funny man who called her Liz.

Lynch, a longtime announcer for the Detroit Red Wings, passed away at age 95 on Tuesday. His funeral service is open to the public, and memorial contributions can be made to support children through The Guidance Center in Southgate.

Lynch’s funeral service is likely to be very well-attended, Deliz said, because so many people knew and liked him.

“He was so friendly and down to earth,” she said. “He was very independent.”

Despite the loss of his arm (during World War II shortly after the D-Day Invasion at Normandy), Lynch would golf and drive in winter snowstorms, Deliz said. And he would never let her help him take out his trash.

“Nothing stops that man,” she said. “He went day and night.”

Deliz knew both Lynch and his late wife, Thelma Lynch.

“They loved St. Patrick’s Day,” she said. “They’d be all decked up in all their green.”

Then the couple would go to R.P. McMurphy’s pub.

Lynch signed a copy of his book — “My Life: From Normandy to Hockeytown” — for Deliz, and one for one of her friends who lives in Arizona.

Deliz is a professional ballroom and Latin dance instructor, and Lynch asked her for her autograph, too. He had her sign a Conde Nast photo of two tango dancers that he’d cut from a magazine, she said.

He agreed to be her dance partner when she did a fundraiser, a couple of years ago for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. Only the Detroit Red Wings’ spring training schedule kept Lynch from it, she said.

“He was just loved by everyone,” Deliz said. “All of the businesses, the restaurants, the stores. He was a very nice man.

“He lived a long, active life.”