By Mark Zaborney
Bladed stick author
Leslie Barron Tamburro, who put hospitality on the menu of her longtime Mexican restaurant and campaigned for the neighborhood – historic downtown Perrysburg – died on November 28 at her daughter Sunday Wiseman’s home in Rossford. She was 69.
She had pancreatic cancer, said her husband Richard Tamburro. The couple last lived in Sheffield Lake, Ohio.
She and her then husband Daniel Barron opened Casa Barron in Perrysburg in 1981. Her first project was the short-lived Venny’s Hayloft in Rossford. This restaurant was named after Mr. Barron’s grandmother, Ventura Cavazos, who was the driving force behind Loma Linda’s Mexican offerings, opened by Mr. Barron’s parents, Connie and Darrell Barron. His aunt Adela Mundt later ran this restaurant and was the matriarch of Venturas and Barron’s Café; his aunt Rhoda Baldwin ran Carmel’s, and aunt Marie Hinojosa ran Magdalena’s Mexican restaurant in Lambertville.
She drew from this experience.
“The Barron family ran them,” said Mr. Tamburro. “She wanted to make sure that people were happy, that the food was good and right, and it was. Nobody went there dissatisfied.”
Daughter Wendy Carson said, “She was one of those who was a natural leader. She would stand by you and work with you.”
This includes kitchen work, bartending, serving or washing up. And the restaurant staff stayed.
“It was family. You could feel that,” said her sister Lisa Scott, who worked there.
Her sister Lori Vincent added, “She has been very close to her customers. She got to know many of them. She worked so hard.
“She was very respected in the community and with her friends. She had a great laugh. You could walk into a crowded room and know where she was,” said Ms. Vincent.
As President of Perrysburg’s Downtown Business Association, Ms. Tamburro was an advocate of establishing a weekly downtown farmers’ market. She was a former co-chair of the city’s holiday parade. She successfully won approval for cafe-style seating in front of Casa Barron, which she hoped would pave the way for other downtown restaurants to open up terraces and liven up the nightlife.
“I thought I’d get everyone else to do it,” she told The Blade in 2006. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get downtown Perrysburg.”
Since 1994 she and her daughters have owned Casa Barron. When she retired from day-to-day business about 13 years ago, daughters Wendy Carson and Sunday Wiseman stepped in.
“She was proud of us,” said daughter Wendy. “She did it all and raised us girls to run this place and be strong women and be good at it.”
The restaurant closed in June and is on sale, said daughter Wendy.
She and Mr. Tamburro lived near Las Cruces, NM for about a decade. She became a school bus driver – and president of the Las Cruces Transportation Federation, the drivers’ union, which led the contract negotiations with the school district. In 2011 she received the “Everyday Hero” award at the annual meeting of the American Federation of Teachers-New Mexico.
Mary Leslie Tammerine was born on January 22, 1952 in Toledo to Verna and James Tammerine and grew up in the Reynolds Corners neighborhood of the former Adams Congregation. She attended Rogers High School and lived in Southern California for a while in her teens.
As a teenager, she raced motorcycles. Horseback riding remained a popular pastime.
She was previously married to Daniel Barron.
Her husband Richard Tamburro, whom she married on January 8, 2005, survived; Daughters Sunday Wiseman, Wendy Carson and Gustina Pennese; Stepdaughters Janine and Alaina Tamburro; Sisters Hope Hutchison, Lorna Jean Tammerine, Lori Vincent, Lisa Scott and Toni Nowakowski; Half-brother Patrick Tammerine; Half-sister Theresa Tammerine; seven grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Friends are welcomed on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Witzler-Shank-Walker Funeral Home, Perrysburg.
The family suggests tributes to the Hospice of Northwest Ohio or the Leukemia Foundation.
Published by The Blade on December 5, 2021.
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