Marilyn Lyons, loyal Hamilton Hill resident, dies

Marilyn Lyons was described in 1993 as outspoken, painfully honest and — above all — loyal to her neighborhood of Hamilton Hill.

She had good reasons to be so loyal, she told The Gazette at the time.

“I like it here,” she said then. “People have a negative view of Hamilton Hill, but we’re here because we want to be — the people are great up here. I care about us up here, and everybody’s kid is my kid.”

Lyons, a mother of six who worked tirelessly through various organizations to better her neighborhood, died last week at home. She was 81. Services are set for Wednesday.

Lyons was a longtime member of the Hamilton Hill Neighborhood Association and served in various groups in an effort to better the neighborhood.

Her involvement in Hamilton Hill dated back more than 35 years. That’s when future Schenectady Mayor Al Jurczynski met her.

Jurczynski then joined the neighborhood association and he recalled he and Lyons compared neighborhood resumes early on. They also became fast friends.

As Jurczynski later made a move into politics and became Schenectady’s mayor, she was a supporter and confidante.

“Her love for the people of Hamilton Hill was second to none,” Jurczynski said. “She was never afraid to open her mouth when she thought that City Hall was shortchanging the neighborhood.”

Jurczynski served as mayor from 1996 to 2003. In 2000, he named her, with others, to a commission to review the city’s charter.

Commanded respect

He recalled Lyons as someone who led by example. She and her friends were deeply involved in the neighborhood issues of the day, Jurczynski said. They would also walk around the neighborhood talking to people.

“They had a profound influence on people in the neighborhood, particularly young people,” Jurczynski recalled.

“It was amazing to watch the respect that she commanded just by being there,” Jurczynski said.

Lyons grew up in Amsterdam and later moved to Schenectady and Hamilton Hill by 1969. She quickly made the neighborhood her home.

Current City Councilwoman Marion Porterfield, also a neighborhood activist, recalled talking with Lyons about issues affecting the neighborhood.

“I feel like she kind of trail-blazed the way for people like me to be activists in the community,” Porterfield said.

Besides her six children, Lyons had eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, according to her obituary.

Daughter Cory Lyons recalled growing up with a mother so involved in the community as “wonderful.”

“She was a wonderful mother, wonderful everything,” Cory Lyons said. “She was our everything.”

One of Lyons’ efforts came out of family tragedy.

For years, Lyons and her friends raised money for a fund to honor her late son Mark, who died from cancer in 1982 at the age of 17. Her son loved basketball and died only hours after being visited by his idol, then-Denver Nuggets basketball star David Thompson.

Former Schenectady High School basketball star Mark Lyons is her grandson and he was named for his late uncle.

Lyons and her friends raised money for the fund through fried chicken dinners. By 1993, they had raised nearly $20,000 for needy students and Hospice of Schenectady. She told The Daily Gazette then the dinners were a way to give back to her neighbors for all the support they gave her after her son’s passing.

Funeral Wednesday

Services for Lyons are scheduled for noon Wednesday at Refreshing Springs Church, 327 Georgetta Dix Plaza in her beloved Hamilton Hill.

Visitation is to be Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Bond Funeral Home, 1614 Guilderland Ave., and from 10 to noon Wednesday at Refreshing Springs Church.

Daughter Cory Lyons said the family was also dealing with the passing of her aunt, Bernice Gunther, who was Marilyn Lyons’ sister. Gunther was 89.

Family members brought Gunther to Schenectady about nine months ago from New York City to live with them. She died Thursday, two days after her sister, Cory Lyons said.

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