Lydia Chidsey died Wednesday, June 4. She was 94.

Lydia was born at her mother’s home in Sewanee, Tenn. to Charlotte Hale and Roland Binet on Oct. 15, 1930. Though their home was in New York she spent summers until she was 16 in Sewanee. During the Depression her father worked in New York but the family remained in Sewanee and then moved permanently to New York in 1941.

Lydia married Robert Chidsey on April 30, 1960. Shortly after, they moved to Simsbury, Conn. where she was an active member of St. Alban’s Episcopal church, having served on the vestry and finance committee. She was also a member of the League of Women Voters on local and national levels.

When the children were little, she held various part-time bookkeeping jobs and in 1984 joined the Simsbury Probate Court, retiring in 1999 as Clerk. It was a job she loved and at which she excelled.

After summering on Martha’s Vineyard for six years, Bob and Lydia built their home in Chilmark where they moved permanently after their retirement. She volunteered at Polly Hill Arboretum in the visitor’s center for 20 years, was a member of the Garden Club, was on the Chilmark Women’s Symposium board and was bookkeeper for Grace Episcopal Church for 21 years, retiring from that in 2021.

Her passion was horseback riding which she started in her early 20s and continued on a regular basis at Arrowhead Farm in West Tisbury until she was 89. At the age of 92 she was talked into getting back on a horse one more time and she thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

Her husband Bob predeceased her. She is survived by her son John, his wife Barbara and their two sons Daniel and Christopher, her daughter Ann Diaz and her husband Martine. She is also survived by her sisters, Ruth Mauro and Charlotte Farrell, many nieces and nephews and devoted friends.

Thanks are given to the many friends who visited, drove and fed her and to Cheryl Kram of VNA of Cape Cod Hospice for her loving care.

Her funeral will be held on Monday, June 16 at 11 a.m. at Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven. Reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers donations in her name may be made to Grace Episcopal Church or to a charity of your choice.