Dorothy C. Flanagan, summer resident of Pemaquid Point, died at Viera Hospital, Fla., following a brief illness on June 10, 30 days after her 95th birthday.
Dorothy was born in 1919 in Northampton, Mass., to immigrants Daniel and Bridget (Daly) Clifford of County Kerry, Ireland. Dot was the youngest of three girls. She was educated at St. Michael’s High School in Northampton and in 1940 received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee, Mass.
Dot taught English in Northampton and in 1943 married her high school sweetheart, Lt. George Flanagan. During WWII 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, Mass. before George retired from the Veterans Administration in 1975. In retirement they split their time between Florida and their 1880s built cottage at Pemaquid Point.
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. She had 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 80s 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, Fla. and St. Patrick’s in Newcastle.
Dorothy is survived by son, David and wife Amy of Castle Rock, Col.; daughter, Martha and husband Frederick Hebert of Darien, Conn.; grandchildren, Kyle, Sean, and Caitlin Flanagan and Emily (Gregory), Cara, and Daly Hebert; and great-grandson, Kyle’s son, Malcom George. “Aunt Punkie” is also survived by nieces and nephew and their families, Rosemary McNulty and Diane O’Connell of Maryland, Sharon Shreve of Florida, and William Dwyer of Massachusetts.
Services for Dot will be held at St. John the Evangelist, Viera, Fla. on Fri., June 13. There will be a service at St. Patrick’s when she is laid to rest next to George this summer.
Donations in Dot’s name may be made to Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield (www.ssjspringfield.org).
