Miss Henrietta Baldy Lyon, early Lycoming County leader in the woman suffrage movement, died at 11:30 o’clock Wednesday night, Jan. 11, 1950, at her home, 870 Hollywood Circle.
She was a member of a prominent family of Pennsylvania dating back to colonial days.
Miss Baldy Lyon had been ill for several months, but her condition did not become alarming until a few weeks ago. She was 85 years old.
Woman Suffrage Leader
A resident of Williamsport since childhood, Miss Baldy Lyon was one of the organizers of the first woman’s suffrage movement in Lycoming County in 1915. She was chairman of the County Suffrage Association and served also on the state executive board of the League of Women Voters.
She helped to organize the Lycoming County Chapter of the American Red Cross and, during World War I, was chairman of the Women’s Liberty Loan Committee of the county. In that same period, she helped organize the County Food Committee and County Speakers’ Bureau, agencies which resulted from war conditions.
Miss Baldy Lyon was a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Colonial Dames of America; the Philadelphia College Club; the Women’s Club, the Garden Club, the Clio Club, the Civic Club, all of Williamsport.
She attended private schools in Williamsport and also studied at Elmira College, Elmira, N.Y.; Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.; Bernard College, Columbia University, and Bryn Mawr College.
She was a native of Danville. Her parents were Henry H. and Henrietta Cooper Montgomery Baldy. Her father was a leading attorney in Montour County and later in life practiced law in Philadelphia.
Her mother’s death occurred shortly after Miss Baldy Lyon was born, so that she thereafter made her home here with a great-aunt, Mrs. Carolyn Lyon. It was in deference to this aunt that she added the name of Lyon to her own family name of Baldy.
She was a descendant of notable colonial families of Pennsylvania. Her father and grandfather were presidents of the Danville National Bank.
Victim of Poison Plot
Her mother was the daughter of John G. Montgomery, Montour County attorney who served as congressman in 1857. He was a personal friend of President James Buchanan.
His death was from the effects of poison secretly placed in food served at a banquet in Washington during the inauguration of Buchanan.
Lycoming County Women's History Collection
