Sydney Baldwin

Growing up, Sydney Lyon Baldwin got in trouble only twice: Once, at 4 years old, when she drew with crayons on the wall, and again 15 years later when she and a friend corralled eight baby skunks, found on the highway, into an empty suitcase to rescue them from a future as roadkill. It's no surprise that she'll be remembered for her art and her devotion to animals.

Sydney died at home on Jan. 20, 2026, 17 months after receiving a diagnosis of ALS, which she met with characteristic wit and determination to keep living her own way.

Sydney was born to Joseph and Barbara Lyon of Hudson, Ohio, on Aug. 23, 1954. The family later moved to Wayne, Illinois, where she grew up running the neighborhood alongside her siblings and neighbors. She learned to ride horses, memorized every bridle path in the area, excelled in the local pony club, and laid the drag line for the Wayne-DuPage Hunt. She got a taste for rescuing animals, too. Simon, a baby raccoon whose mother was killed by a pack of Whippets, called the Lyon abode home for a summer. He'd open and close cabinets, climb in and out of windows at night, and ride horses tucked inside Sydney's sweater.

For college, she headed to the University of Idaho on a pre-veterinary track. One semester in, she abandoned that plan to study art. She thought her dad might be disappointed, but he wasn't. "Finally," he said, when she told him during a visit. After exhausting Idaho's art department, she bid goodbye to the friends she'd made as a Kappa Alpha Theta and transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago There, she completed a bachelor of fine arts with an emphasis on drawing and painting.

After graduation, she worked as a graphic designer at a Chicago publishing company, where she met her future husband, Mark Baldwin. A famously picky eater, Sydney survived their first date at a Mexican restaurant, and they married on Friday, Jan. 13, 1984, in a candlelit ceremony held on a snowy evening at Wayne's Little Home Church by the Wayside. Inauspicious date aside, they were married for 42 years.

She created comfortable homes wherever they lived as Mark's career in news took them around the country, before they settled in Rockford, Illinois, a city famous for its Peaches. They were dedicated members of the churches they belonged to in each community, occasionally as Lutherans but most comfortably as Episcopalians.

Along the way, they had three daughters: Hannah, Mary, and Jane, raised in a menagerie that included at various times Labradors, cats, Whippets, a schipperke, a pony, parakeets, a cockatiel, several fish and hamsters, and a flock of chickens.

Sydney taught her daughters to ride their beloved spotted pony Picasso, nurtured their artistic, academic, and athletic pursuits, and made sure they all knew how to use a drill. Childhood complaints were often met with a nonchalant, "Life is hard and then you die."

She cultivated gardens and friendships in every home, welcoming neighbors and friends, fellow dog lovers and horse people into her life. Two weeks after receiving her ALS diagnosis, her Rockford home overflowed with cherished friends and family celebrating her 70th birthday.

Sydney was always funny, sharp and observant. Upon meeting one of her caregivers with Northern Illinois Hospice for the first time, she said, "You know I'm dying, right?"

Sydney is survived by husband Mark, daughters Hannah (Eyal) Baldwin Grauer, Mary (Simon Gutierrez) Baldwin, and Jane Baldwin; grandchildren Hazel, Leo, and Pia; her mother Barbara; siblings Mimi (Craig) White, Joseph (Janet) Lyon Jr., and Stacey (John) Abe; sister-in-law Claudia Hicks; nieces and nephews; and dogs Fitz and Mamie. She was preceded in death by her father, Joseph Lyon.

In lieu of flowers, send her back. If that proves impossible, please consider a gift to the soup kitchen at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Forest City Dog Training Club, Northern Illinois Hospice, or ALS United of Greater Chicago.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 412 N. Church St. Rockford, Illinois. Visitation will begin at 1 p.m. Memorial reception to follow at Prairie Street Brewing Company.