“She seems to have lived a relatively normal life and seems to have enjoyed it,” said Oliver Moritz, 46, the manager of a hotel several hundred yards up the lakeshore, noting that she was the kind of person you would run into while shopping.
Roland Roller Frei, 57, a Swiss music producer who worked with her on and off for over a decade, said that it was this normal life, unbothered by fans, that seemed to draw Ms. Turner to a life in Switzerland.
“I think it was important for her to find a place where she would be left alone,” he said, adding: “I think she appreciated the fact that she was not being pestered by fans every day, but that she could enjoy her retirement in peace.”
The town’s mayor, Markus Ernst, 50, said that some residents had become so used to her presence that they forgot what a big deal she was outside Küsnacht. “We became fully aware of her global star quality in 2013, when she got married and when camera teams descended on us from around the world,” he said.
Mr. Ernst, who says he listened to Ms. Turner’s music as a teenager on cassette tapes and records, said meeting her in real life was very special. “She had an incredible aura, was very approachable and interacted with you in such a positive way,” he said.
And she also gave back to her community. “She was a great ambassador for our community, and she did it totally voluntarily,” said Mr. Ernst, referring to Ms. Turner’s habit of praising Switzerland and Küsnacht to the news media.
“With Tina Turner’s death, the world has lost an icon,” Switzerland’s president, Alain Berset, posted on Twitter on Wednesday, adding, “My thoughts are with the relatives of this impressive woman who has found a second home in Switzerland.”