Joan Lyon was “feisty, independent, caring and smart” and that’s probably why she lived until age 96, said her friend and housekeeper, Kathleen McSweeney of Highlands Ranch.
Lyon, who died Aug. 3, had lived in her Cherry Hills Village home until two days before she died.
She was still pruning her roses in her 90s and climbing up ladders to get branches off the roof in her 70s.
Almost every time McSweeney went to the Lyon house, “she was up on a step stool doing something,” said McSweeney.
She cleaned her own pool until she was in her 70s.
Lyon and McSweeney talked about everything, including politics.
Lyon was an unshakable Republican, never failed to watch Fox 31 for news and commentary, never spent money frivolously and was quick with the one-liners, said another friend, Connie Roth, a longtime neighbor.
Lyon had been a skier and a singer, learned to play the piano and violin early and “was an incredible seamstress,” said her daughter, Jan Eaton of Virginia Beach, Va.
She made clothes for herself, her daughters and even her granddaughters’ dolls.
One of the earliest residents of Cherry Hills Village, Lyon lived in the same house where she reared her children and where she guarded neighborhood kids in her swimming pool. Years ago, she rode horses and put on horse shows for her kids and their friends, said Eaton.
Lyon loved martinis on the rocks and cigarettes — and didn’t give up either until late in life. A longtime volunteer for the Red Cross, where she gave rides to people in need, she gave up the work when they said she couldn’t smoke anymore.
She played Rachmaninoff on the piano, loved musicals and ballroom dancing and “could play bridge all night,” said Eaton. She hardly ever missed “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” or doing the daily crossword.
“She was very intelligent and never lost interest in things,” said McSweeney.
Her few frustrations were Democrats, high prices and weather that was “too cold, too hot, or too windy,” said Roth.
She painted flowers on milk cans for friends.
Kathryn Joan Stritmatter was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, on Dec. 6, 1912.
She studied at Capital University and played violin in the Ohio State orchestra.
She married Arthur Curtis Jackson in 1947. They later divorced, and she married a Denver dentist, Donald Lyon Jr., who died in 2003. She also was preceded in death by a daughter, Lucia Cole, who died of cancer in 1982.
In addition to Eaton, she is survived by eight grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
