Grace C. Lyons

Grace C. Lyons, cherished family matriarch and respected nurse who cared for patients at two national medical institutions and a local doctor’s practice, died July 9, 2025, of natural causes in her sleep at home in Mt Airy, MD. She was 94.

Lyons, a registered nurse, worked at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in the early 1950s; as an occupational health nurse at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, in the 1970s; and as the primary office nurse for the general medical practice of Dr. Ronald E. Miller in Mt. Airy in the 1980s and 1990s. In later years, she also turned her life-long passion for antiques into a small business at the family’s Red Sleigh Farm outside of Mt. Airy.

Grace Catherine Hanley was born on Jan. 14, 1931, at her family home in rural North Reading, MA. She was the younger of two daughters of Catherine M. (Hogan) Hanley, a homemaker, and Edward J. Hanley, a building maintenance engineer. They lived in a house built on land won by a beloved uncle in a raffle held to encourage development in the town in the early 1920s.

Lyons graduated from the nursing school at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford, MA, in 1951. She started at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary later that year, where she became head floor nurse. 2

In November 1953, Lyons married her high school sweetheart, John W. Lyons, and paused her career to raise a family. Together they lived in San Antonio, TX; Reading, MA; Webster Groves, MO; and Mt. Airy-a bucolic setting reminiscent of her childhood home-while raising four children to whom she was completely devoted. They remained happily married for more than seventy years until her husband’s death in March 2024.

In 1974, Lyons was injured in a horseback riding accident. An x-ray revealed a mass inside her skull behind her right eye. A team of surgeons, using a new arterial procedure that lasted more than nine hours, removed the benign tumor without damaging her eyesight or brain function.

After recovering from the surgery, Lyons resumed her nursing career in 1976 at NIH. In 1981, she joined Dr. Miller’s practice in Mt. Airy, where patients valued her efficiency in running the office and her skill and empathy as a care provider. She retired in 1998.

In the 1980s Lyons became an antique dealer and opened the Red Sleigh Shoppe at the farm with her daughter Mary Ann Lyons. She delighted in hunting for treasures, haggling over price, and the occasional sale.

Lyons endured hardships with her characteristic Irish fatalism, enjoyed pleasures with humility, and brightened the lives around her with a sharp wit. In later years, she and her husband savored large holiday gatherings with family, doted on their pet Havanese, Lizzee, and shared an abiding love for each other in the sanctuary of their farm.

Lyons is survived by daughters Margaret Emily Lyons (Donald Keyser) of Fairfax Station, VA, and Mary Ann Lyons of Mt. Airy; sons John Hanley Lyons (Kathleen Lyons) of Olney, MD, and Louis Martin Lyons, II, (Christina Lyons) of Germantown, MD; nine grandchildren: Margaret Jessee Lyons 3

(Patrick Hills) of Silver Spring, MD; Brianna Casey Lyons (Elske Tielens) of Atlanta, GA; Samantha Grace Lyons Keyser of Carmel, IN; Kaylene Moya Lyons of Urbana, MD; Frances Grace Lyons (Matthew Hewitt) of Warsaw, Poland; Annee Lyons (Jack Thiemel) of London, England; Dunchadhn Hanley Broer Lyons (Torie Broer Lyons) of Durham, NC; John Winship Lyons, II, (Carolyn Stephens) of Los Angeles, CA; and Josephine Lorraine Lyons of Germantown, MD; and one great-grandchild, Louisa Cora Catherine Lyons of Silver Spring, MD. She was predeceased by a daughter, Elizabeth Catherine Lyons, age five weeks, on January 15, 1956; her sister, Emily Rose (Hanley) Ciarfella on October 2, 2010; and her husband, John W. Lyons on March 14, 2024.

A memorial service is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Monday, August 18, 2025, at St. Peter The Apostle Catholic Church, 9190 Church St., Libertytown (Union Bridge), MD 21791. Interment in the church’s cemetery beside her husband will take place immediately after the service, followed by a reception.