Music legend Tina Turner spent her final days pottering around the picturesque lakeside village in Switzerland she called home.
The multi-million dollar singer would casually stroll the streets of Küsnacht in search of designer clothes and gourmet food.
At other times she would sit on a chair in the local park and gaze across Lake Zurich at the snowy mountains that characterize this Alpine nation.
And despite having a personal butler and a full headcount, the star herself drove through the narrow streets in her Porsche Cayenne.
Tina Turner managed to make the most of her years in the peaceful town of Küsnacht, where she had lived for the past 26 years.
The musical icon was known for casually strolling the streets of the idyllic village, sometimes driving the narrow lanes herself in her Porsche Cayenne
The hitmaker Simply the Best stepped out of the public eye nearly 20 years ago and retired to Chateau Algonquin
Today, the 83-year-old entertainment icon is remembered by her neighbors as “humble,” “friendly,” and “polite.”
Butcher Benny Lang told DailyMail.com, “Tina Turner sometimes came into town to run errands. She had a butler but she liked to go herself, with her husband Erwin.
‘They particularly liked the Moreira Gourmet House. It is the best place in the area to buy smoked salmon and white truffles. They bought that there.’
Tina Turner moved to Küsnacht in 1995 when her German husband Erwin Bach took a job as head of EMI Music’s Swiss offices in nearby Zurich. They got married in 2013.
In the same year, Tina acquired Swiss citizenship and gave up her US passport.
Turner, who learned to speak German in order to qualify for Swiss nationality and picked up the distinctive Swiss dialect, took yoga classes in Horn public park, a few minutes’ walk from her sprawling castle.
A neighbor revealed, “When she first moved here, she took up yoga. She took classes in the park.’
Tina and her husband Erwin were big fans of the Moreira Gourmet House, her go-to for her favorite gourmet dishes like smoked salmon and white truffles, local butcher Benny Lang told DailyMail.com
She had also started taking yoga classes in Horn Park, just a few minutes’ walk from her sprawling castle
The musical icon would sometimes sit on a chair in the local park and gaze across Lake Zurich at the snow-capped mountains that characterize this Alpine nation
Tina Turner and her husband Erwin Bach shopping in Milan, Italy, April 5, 2008, shortly before her retirement
Another added, “She loved going to the park and sitting by the water. It’s a very peaceful place.
“She would say ‘Gruezi’, how we say ‘hello’ in Swiss German, to people walking their dogs. She was very friendly.’
Turner also frequented the designer clothing store Laredo.
Store clerk Arzu Oezoguz said, “Mrs. Turner would enter the store.
‘She was very humble. She would enter with her husband Erwin.
‘She wasn’t conceited. I would say ‘Hello, Mrs Turner’ and she would say ‘Hello’ back.
She loved shoes. We have very nice shoes here, made by Italian designers. They cost about 1,000 Swiss francs.
We also sell clothes. Our dresses cost about the same.
“Mrs Turner was happy to buy this one. And she bought cashmere sweaters for her husband Erwin.’
Store clerk Arzu Oezoguz said Turner also frequented the Laredo designer clothing store
The store employee said she chose Italian designer shoes and bought cashmere sweaters for her husband
The pair began dating after meeting at a German airport in the mid-1980s, which kick-started Turner’s love affair with Europe.
Fans paid tribute and left flowers in front of Tina Turner’s home in Zurich following her death on Wednesday
She added: “Other times I saw her driving around town in her Porsche Cayenne.
“She was a very polite lady.”
Another resident, who asked only to be called Carmen, said, “I would see Tina Turner walking down the street with her husband.
“They seemed very relaxed and happy together.”
Küsnacht, a short drive from Switzerland’s financial capital, Zurich, is home to many wealthy expats.
English is widely spoken in the first class shops and restaurants that characterize this ancient village.
One resident said: ‘Wealthy people live their lives here in peace.
“We leave them alone and let them be who they want to be.
“That’s why they come to live here.”