Dorothy Flanagan

Dorothy C. Flanagan 09 May 1919 – 10 June 2014 On June 10, 2014, thirty days after her 95th birthday, Dorothy died at Viera Hospital, Florida following a brief illness. Dorothy was born in 1919 in Northampton, Massachusetts, to immigrants Daniel and Bridget (Daly) Clifford of County Kerry, Ireland. Dot was the youngest of three sisters. She was educated at St. Michael’s High School in Northampton and in 1940 received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Dot taught English in Northampton and in 1943 married her high school sweetheart, Lieutenant George Flanagan. During World War II Dot accompanied George through U.S. Army postings in Maine, Boston Harbor, Oklahoma, Texas and Georgia before he was deployed to Europe. After the war Dot and George returned to Northampton and began raising their two children. They moved from Massachusetts to West Virginia to New York and finally to Billerica, Massachusetts before George retired from the Veterans Administration in 1975. In retirement they split their time between Florida and their 1880’s built cottage at Pemaquid Point, Maine. George passed away suddenly in 2005, the first time he and Dot were separated since WWII! Dot was a full time homemaker, mother and Sunday school teacher. She transitioned to full time caregiver for both her father and George’s mother in their final years. A rewarding career with much work but few awards other than the pride and thanks of her family. Dot was an accomplished seamstress and knitter. Her knitting was a labor of love throughout her life. Taught by her mother, she began with wool socks and caps for the European troops. For over 70 years she knitted hats, mittens, sweaters and Christmas stockings not only for her own kids, nieces, nephew and their children but in later years for church charities and again for military personnel. In her 70s she took up the largely abandoned craft of making hand braided wool rugs. In her 80’s she enthusiastically joined the internet generation and stayed in touch with family and friends via email and video chats. Throughout her life she was very proud of her Irish heritage, visiting and reminiscing with friends and relatives in New England and Ireland. No St. Patrick’s day went by without a green pancake being offered for breakfast. Dot was an active member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Viera, FL and St. Patrick’s in New Castle, ME. Dorothy is survived by her son David and wife Amy of Castle Rock, Colorado; her daughter Martha and husband Frederick Hebert of Darien Connecticut; her grandchildren: Kyle, Sean and Caitlin Flanagan and Emily (Gregory), Cara and Daly Hebert; and her great grandson—Kyle’s son, Malcom George. Dot (AKA Aunt Punkie) will be missed by her nieces and nephew and their families: Rosemary McNulty and Diane O’Connell in Maryland, Sharon Shreve in Florida and William Dwyer in Massachusetts. Services for Dot will be held at St. John the Evangelist, Viera, FL on Friday, June 13, 2014 at 2:30P.M. Details are available at http://beckmanwilliamson.com/. There will be a later service this summer at St. Patrick’s when she is laid to rest next to George. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Dot’s name to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield (www.ssjspringfield.org ) or to the USO (www.uso.org)