WEST BALDWIN- Patricia Anne (Lyons) Sanborn entered the Kingdom of Heaven on October 15, 2026. Patty was the heart of her family’s life, and she died peacefully after a short illness surrounded by people who loved her.
Patty was born in Portland on March 10, 1948, to Mary and Francis “Ben” Lyons, the second of their ten children. Her own love of family was deeply rooted in her childhood home. She loved to be surrounded by her siblings, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and delighted in choosing Christmas presents every year for her nieces and nephews.
Patty was a member of the class of 1966 at Potter Academy in Sebago, which is where she met lifelong friends Hilda, Esther and Jean. After graduating, she worked as a nursing assistant at Portland City Hospital, and later as a CNA and unit secretary at Bridgton Hospital. She was actively involved in the West Baldwin United Methodist Church for most of her adult life. She taught Sunday school there for 39 years and for many of those also served as the director of Christian education. She directed the youth choir, created a story hour at the church for children in the community, and founded their Vacation Bible School.
At age 16, Patty met Earl Sanborn, the love of her life, while sledding with friends on the property that would one day be where the two built a family home together. The two were married in 1967 and together raised five sons. Years later, Patty would build and run an antiques shop nearby on the same property, with the shop eventually appearing on the antiques map of Cornish.
As their children grew and had families of their own, it brought Patty great joy to host bustling parties, including birthdays, anniversaries, family weddings and, of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in her home. She loved tradition, and filling spaces with festive decorations. Her family will remember her needhams, pies, cakes and cookies very fondly. Her grandchildren will remember helping her decorate gingerbread boys by the dozens each Christmas, which she would distribute to family, friends, neighbors, teachers, medical providers and her children’s co-workers.
Patty was predeceased by her parents, Mary and Francis Lyons. She is survived by Earl Sanborn, her loving husband of 59 years, and by all of her siblings: Marjorie, Francis, David, John, Paul, Mary, Stephen, Matthew and Peter. She is also survived by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren: Christopher Sanborn and his wife Beth, with daughters Madeline (husband Alex and daughter Amelia), Grace (husband Ryan and daughter Renee), and Abigail; Timothy Sanborn and his husband Joaquim; Calvin Sanborn and his husband Daniel, with children Owen, Eliana, Benjamin and Simon; Mark Sanborn and Sarah, with their children Aaron, Liam, Mason and Landon; and Patrick Sanborn and his wife Ericka, with daughter Margaret. In addition, Patty was aunt to 28 nieces and nephews on the Lyons side, and nine on her husband’s, all of whom she loved dearly.
Visitation services will be held on October 23 from 5 - 7 PM at Poitras, Neal & York Funeral Home at 71 Maple Street, in Cornish, Maine. Funeral services will be held on October 24 at 11:30 at West Baldwin United Methodist Church, 1006 Pequawket Trail, West Baldwin, Maine. Patty’s family is deeply grateful for the excellent care she received at Maine Medical Center (Portland and Biddeford) and Summer Commons (Sanford) over the last month. They are especially grateful for the compassion and care that she received in her final days at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough, Maine, and ask that memorial donations be made there in lieu of flowers. May Patty’s memory be a blessing.