Elizabeth Ann Lyon

Elizabeth Ann Lyon died on June 5, 2025 at home with her family at age 86. She was a loving mother, and a valiant friend. Elizabeth was born in London, England as the older of twin girls at a time of great world tension. Britain entered World War II the following year, and her family including her 3 siblings, her mother and maternal grandparents endured the bombing campaigns known as the Blitz. Her family evacuated to Northern Wales for a short time, living on a wide beautiful beach. They returned to London for their education, and she recalled enduring school lessons in bomb shelters, food rationing, and her father’s absence as he served in the British Army as an officer. She delighted in recalling how her grandfather Buffy protected them all as air raid warden and tended a Victory Garden to share food with their neighborhood. She finished her education and a secretarial diploma in London at Kingston Technical College. She joined her mother and father at his Army posting in Singapore where she worked as a secretary at a film company. She recalled the voyage through the Suez Canal distinctly. Upon her return to England, she and her parents lived in a castle in Devizes. She married her first husband, Jack Norton and became step-mother to his son Hugh Norton. They travelled to Canada and the US, spending time in Edmonton, Aberta near her twin sister Mary Sturgess’s family, eventually settling on Cape Cod.

Elizabeth worked as a secretary at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and met Thomas Lyon, a radio electronics technician and builder. They married and had 3 children, living in a small home in Cataumet along Red Brook Pond. They designed and built a large addition to their one-bedroom ranch to accommodate the family of 5 and various dogs. She was an ardent supporter of her children’s activities, especially music. She served and organized extensive fundraisers for the Bourne String Program and the Music Department and valued the mentorship and teaching of one music teacher particularly, Miss Bonnie Bearse, who taught all 3 of her children, coaching two of them as members of the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra. While her husband’s work took him to sea for months at a time, she managed home, children, pets and building as well as hosting visits from family to the beaches of Cape Cod.

Elizabeth and her husband Tom sought the peace and space of Vermont in 1986, buying Mad Brook Farm in Waterford and moving their family north. Her activities no longer involved building, but turned to wildlife spotting, mowing fields with a tractor, hiking and maintaining a fishpond. She became a valued friend to many people in Waterford, helping with medical appointments and lifeline services. She assisted the Town Clerk, and then became politically active locally. After nursing her husband during a 5-year illness, she managed the property and learned Pilates, Spanish, and founded a book club. As well as increasing her hiking in the White Mountains, she became very active in political support of Bernie Sanders with door-to-door campaigning and organizing. In 2017, she returned to Massachusetts to settle with her daughter Helen and son-in-law Mark and step-granddaughter Lindsay in Princeton, MA. She used her design and building skills to create an apartment in their home. She enjoyed watching butterflies, birds and neighbors from her front window, and joined a local book club and political action committee. She greatly enjoyed the years her grandson Cody joined them with his lively husky Raine. She relished trips to Boston Philharmonic Orchestra concerts, Tanglewood concerts, family in Vermont and Cape Cod beaches.

At age 80, she faced with 2 chronic diseases with great courage, telling her physician that she had a 10-year plan. She shouldered each new challenge with the same bravery she must have developed during wartime, showing her family how to get life done despite adversity. She is survived by her twin sister, Mary Sturgess (husband John Sturgess) of Summerland, British Columbia, her brother David Lyons of Warminster, England, and her three children Sarah Lyon-Callo (husband Vincent), Helen Lyon-Feeney (husband Mark Feeney), Benjamin Lyon (wife Maureen Lyon) and her step-son Hugh Norton (wife Janet Norton) as well as her grand-children: Devon Phillips, Cody Lyon, Katie Lyon of Vermont; Tobias Lyon-Callo and Isabella Lyon-Callo of Michigan, Lauren Feeney, Massachusetts, Lindsay Feeney, Sydney Australia, Craig Feeney, Louisiana and her great-granddaughters Evelyn and Emelia (mother Kelsey Gilman).

Memorial donations in lieu of flowers can be made in her name to: The Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary of the Mass Audubon and the Bourne Conservation Trust (PO Box 203, Cataumet, MA 02341).

A celebration of her life will be held at her home on July 19, 2025, from 1 to 5 pm: 9 Stagecoach Road, Princeton, MA 01541. For further details, please email hnlyon@gmail.com