Antonia Hamilton

Antonia Hamilton, 74

Antonia Wallace Hamilton died in her home in Philadelphia on February 28, having determined not to see her advancing Alzheimer's through to its end. Toni, as she was known to all who knew her, was born July 12, 1940 to James M. and Christine Klesius Wallace of Philadelphia. She grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, graduated from Smith College, and lived at various times in Italy, Colombia, Virginia, Michigan, and Iowa before returning to Philadelphia in 1992. She worked primarily in institutional development, with the Iowa Foundation, the Chester County Historical Society, and the Arts League of Philadelphia. In her youth, she was an enthusiastic horsewoman and took to fly fishing in her later years. She was an excellent hostess and cook, warmly remembered and frequently quoted by many with whom she shared her home. With her husband, Carter Leidy, who survives her, she traveled often, to a fishing camp in the Poconos, to Maine, to Ireland, and to Italy and France. She is survived also by a sister, Douglass Newbold of Malvern, Pennsylvania, two children by her first marriage, Jennifer Bogoni of Philadelphia and Colin Hamilton of St. Paul, Minnesota, and four grandchildren, Alessandro and Eleanora Bogoni and Theodore and William Hamilton. Living by the words of her riding instructor—"If you want to take your horse over the jump, you've got to throw your heart over the fence first"—she ended her life with the same grace and courage by which she lived.