Randy Tyree was born in Carthage, Tennessee, in 1940. Son of a tobacco farmer and the local high school football star. After graduating at 18 he left home to work for the FBI in Washington DC for 4 years. He became a police officer in Knoxville and later became police commissioner.

He was the city's youngest candidate ever to hold the office of mayor, defeating Republican incumbent Kyle Testerman. He was re-elected to a second four-year term, and presided over the city during the 1982 World's Fair.

Tyree unsuccessfully sought to again become mayor in the 1987 election.