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Audrey Lyons

Audrey L. Lyons died on April 18, 2024, of natural causes at the age of 100, at the Essex Meadows Health Center in Essex. Audrey was the daughter of Edward G. Garbers and Alice ( Murch ) Garbers. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 18, 1924.

Audrey was baptized, christened, and married in Trinity Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, where she was an enthusiastic member of the Girls Friendly Society. She was a member of the first graduating class of Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn. Audrey attended Brooklyn College for two years before America entered World War II in 1944. Eager to join the war effort at home, she became a $40-a-week parts inspector at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where warships were being built. She often recounted her memories of the day the U. S. Missouri battleship was launched. Along with her co-workers, she stood on a platform and witnessed President Truman’s daughter, Margaret, swing a bottle of Champagne in an unsuccessful effort to christen the ship. A Navy Midshipman stepped in to complete the task. The Missouri was the ship on which Admiral Chester Nimitz accepted Japan’s surrender at the end of the Pacific War.

In 1946, Audrey married returning Air Force veteran, James V. Lyons, of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn. Together they began their long, happy marriage with numerous moves around the country as Jim progressed in his successful business career at O. E.McIntyre. In all, Audrey moved 18 times during her 58-year marriage, including stops in Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and Connecticut. Many of the moves were the result of Audrey’s major passion in life, which was the design and construction of contemporary homes. She was ahead of her time and, in another generation, would have been an architect herself rather than the principal designer of the seven modern homes she built with the assistance of several architects. In 1976, Audrey and Jim moved to Essex, where she designed and built three houses before moving to the Essex Meadows at the age of 90.

Audrey was an active volunteer throughout her life, with a specialty in helping organize rummage sales at schools and churches in her communities. She was a devoted member of the Essex Congregational Church and a volunteer in numerous community organizations. Audrey loved entertaining friends and family, often around her player piano for sing alongs or at the Essex Boat Club where Jim’s sailboat was moored. She loved to sew and made hundreds of aprons, napkins and placemats which she donated to be sold at rummage sales at her church. She made jewelry made of colorful beads and homemade birthday cards that she cut, pasted, and illustrated. She was an avid gardener and always had artfully arranged fresh-cut flowers in her home. She was a habitual furniture re-arranger and an early recycler of products of all kinds.

Audrey was a loving mother to her two children, Jed Lyons ( Blythe) and Susan Lyons, who survive her. She was the grandmother of Ted (Jamie) and Michael Lyons and Nicholas Krens; and the great-grandmother of James, Richard and Pierce Lyons.

A private funeral service will be held in June at the Essex Congregational Church. Donations in Audrey’s memory may be made to the Essex Congregational Church or the Essex Public Library. Audrey’s family wishes to thank caregivers Mary Mansour and Robyn Alper and the superb staff at Essex Meadows and the Hospice of Yale New Haven for their palliative care.