Sydney Lawson Obituary

Leila Sydney Hays Lawson, known universally as "Sydney", passed away on Thursday, 30 January 2025 at Norton Brownsboro Hospital surrounded by those she loved the most, her children and grandchildren. Her death at 84 is not only a loss to her family, but to the entire Shelbyville community where she lived for her entire life.
Sydney was born on July 5th 1940 the eldest of three daughters of James and Leila Hays. They along with her two sisters, Helen Hays Delk and Susan Hays, predeceased her. In 1961 she married Robert "Bobby" Lawson, and they settled in Shelbyville to start their life together. In 2001, they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary with a large party with friends and family, but sadly, Bobby died a year later from cancer. As Sydney once remarked to a friend, "he really didn't want the party, but before he died said that he was glad she had insisted on it".
After a number of years of being a stay-at-home mom, Sydney returned to college to finish her degree, graduating from Kentucky State with a degree in accounting; she then passed her exams to become a CPA. Her first job was with the Commonwealth of Kentucky; after a few years she was recruited by a private accounting firm that specialized in educational audits; assignments for this company took her from Appalachia to Maine. Sydney ended her working life with the Commonwealth's Department of Education specializing in auditing its school districts.
Sydney's community activities both during her working life and beyond were wide and varied: from childhood, she was a member of Shelbyville's Centenary Methodist Church, and in later years one of its mainstays. She became a lay minister late in life and went on a mission to Eastern Europe; she worked with and for the local NAACP chapter, the Shelby Democrats, the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the local Rotary club, the Red Bird Mission; with another charity she went to New Orleans after Katrina and to Eastern Kentucky to help flood victims, last but not least, she was an avid member of the Shelby County Garden Club. Sydney was very aware of the problems of her fellow citizens, helping out physically in some way, or sharing her compassion with a kind word or observation. If you needed help and Sydney knew it, she was there.
For pure pleasure, Sydney loved to spend hours working in her garden; later, in the mornings or late afternoons, sitting at the table and chair outside her back door drinking tea she enjoyed looking at the result of her hard work. Sydney was an avid seamstress and quilter; many of her friends knew she would happily hem a skirt or fix a zipper; she took great joy in creating individual quilts for each of her granddaughters.
Sydney is survived by her son, Hays Lawson of Shelbyville, her daughter Latisha Hays of St. Mary's Georgia, and six grandchildren, Dan Hays and Sydney Eve Hays of St. Mary's Georgia; Isabella Lawson and Emma Lawson of Louisville; Charlotte Lawson of Lexington, and Helena Wren Lawson of Shelbyville, plus a number of nieces, nephews and cousins all of whom loved dearly.
Memorial service will be held 3:00 P.M. Thursday, February 6, 2025 at the Centenary United Methodist Church, 429 Main Street, Shelbyville, KY 40065, with a reception to follow in the fellowship hall. In accordance with Sydney's wishes cremation was chosen and her ashes will be privately interred later in the year.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to either the local Shelby County NAACP Branch, P. O. Box 1272, Shelbyville, KY 40066 or the Red Bird Mission, 70 Queendale Center, Beverly, KY 40913.
Shannon Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.