Joyce (Sprague) Lyons

BRUNSWICK – Joyce (Sprague) Lyons of Georgetown and Brunswick, died on Nov. 22, 2025, in Scarborough. Joyce was born in Somerville, Mass., and was a proud 1949 graduate of Morse High School in Bath. She attended Winslow Business School in Boston and worked for the Graduate School of Business Administration at Northeastern University. She married Richard Lyons in 1953 in Watertown, Mass., and retired to raise two children. Joyce later returned to work for the superintendent of schools for the Topsfield-Boxford School District in Massachusetts. After Richard’s retirement from IBM in 1987, they spent their winters in Cape Coral, Fla., and summers in Georgetown. They traveled the world and around the United States for several years but thought coastal Maine was the most beautiful place on earth. Joyce was a member of the Bath Garden Club, and her gardens in Georgetown were a feature of the Georgetown Summer Garden Tour. She was a charter member of the Friends of Perkins Island Lighthouse and a longtime Board member of the Georgetown Historical Society, where she was one of the “Gang of Seven” who raised the funds to build the new Georgetown Historical Society headquarters. Joyce donated the proceeds from the sales of her book “Marrtown- Deserted Village to Revival” to the Georgetown Historical Society toward their building fund. Joyce was a library volunteer for over 25 years. She served on the Lee County (Florida) Library Advisory Board as Secretary and President. She was a member of the Friends of the Cape Coral Library and served as Historian, Secretary and President. For many years she wrote a monthly library column for the Cape Coral Breeze newspaper. Joyce was instrumental in the addition of the Art Gallery at the Cape Coral Library and served as Chairman of the gallery’s advisory board. She was named 2011 Citizen of the Year by the Cape Coral Council for the Arts and Humanities for her outstanding support of the cultural arts. Joyce was also a member of the National League of American Pen Women and served as its secretary and President. She was an avid bridge player and loved to cook and entertain.

Joyce was predeceased by her loving husband Richard in 2009 and is survived by her son Mark Lyons of Georgetown and his wife Geraldine, and her daughter Gretchen Jones and her husband Bobby of Brunswick. She was the proud grandmother to Zachary Jones of Falmouth and his wife Lisa, Hannah Longley of Litchfield and her husband Jason, Vanessa Lyons of South Berwick, and Rachel Folan of Barrington, R.I., and her husband Kevin. She adored her six great-grandchildren, Delphia Jones, Gabriel and Cora Ruth Longley and Quinn, Seamus and Keegan Folan.

Services will be held at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Brunswick, on Dec. 11 at 1 p.m.

Memorial donations may be made her name to the Georgetown Historical Society, PO Box 41, Georgetown, ME 04548 or the Friends of the Cape Coral Library 921 SW 39th Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33914.