Mary Ellen (Lyman) Seda

Mary Ellen (Lyman) Seda

Iowa City

Mary Ellen (Lyman) Seda, 85, of Iowa City, Iowa and St. Charles, Illinois, died Tuesday, December 23, 2025, at University of Iowa Healthcare.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated Monday, January 5, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Coralville, Iowa. Burial will follow at St. Joseph Cemetery in Iowa City. Visitation will be held Sunday, January 4, 2025, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Lensing’s Oak Hill, 210 Holiday Road in Coralville. The Iowa City Nurse Honor Guard will present honors at 3PM.

Born June 22, 1940, in Somerville, Somerset County, New Jersey, the son of Albert Joseph Lyman and Roberta Nettie Scott, Mary Ellen spent her early childhood in New Jersey, and then lived in Richmond and Arlington, Virginia, where her father worked at the Pentagon. After the death of her father, her mother and brother moved in with her grandparents in Hammond, Indiana, where she graduated from Hammond High School. She attended the University of Iowa, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. She met her future husband at a Neuman Center student dance and married James Roy Seda on August 26, 1961, in Iowa City at St. Thomas More Catholic Church.

Mary worked as a general nurse at the beginning of her career, and later specialized in geriatrics and rehabilitation, managing nursing homes and traveling throughout the country to help them come up to “code,” She also trained nurses aides at a local community college and, for a brief time, worked at an interior design fabrics store and a jeweler in Geneva, Illinois. Her final role was as a “back to work” consultant at AIG. Upon retirement, she attended auctions and ran an eBay business with her husband.

Mary was a member of The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, The Daughters of the American Revolution, The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, and The University Club.

Survivors include her daughter Karen Sue Seda of Chicago and Iowa City; sons Joseph Whitney Seda (Angelika) of Hayesville, North Carolina, Thomas Kerr Seda (Christine) of Fishers, Indiana, and Patrick John Seda (Dianna) of Senoia, GA; grandchildren Erin (Eddie), Matthew (Sarah), Sarah (Tyler), Zachary (Zoe), Daniel, Elizabeth, Alexandria, Rebekah, Johnathan, Olivia, and Natania; great-grandchildren Gabriel, William, and Sophia; and her Yorkshire Terrier, Teddy.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her son Jeffrey Michael Seda; her brother James Whitney Lyman, her daughter-in-law Cheryl Marie (Clegg) Seda, as well as her Yorkshire Terriers, the most recent being Bluebell, whom she loved with all her heart.

Mary had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh. She also loved babies, interior decorating and sewing, auctions, jewelry, animals and nature documentaries, music, and Yorkshire Terriers. One of her happiest memories was dancing with her grandfather in The Triangle Ballroom at the Iowa Memorial Union at the University of Iowa.

Memorial donations may be made in Mary Ellen Lyman Seda’s name to the University of Iowa College of Nursing in care of the University of Iowa Center For Advancement, PO Box 4550, Iowa City, Iowa 52242.

Online condolences at www.lensingfuneral.com