Mary E. Flanagan, community volunteer

Posted

Mary Elizabeth “Liz” Flanagan, 89, formerly of Springfield, a longtime community volunteer, died Dec. 1 in hospice care at The Hill at Whitemarsh in Lafayette Hill.

Mrs. Flanagan was long active in numerous volunteer and charitable activities. She served as president of the League of Women Voters of Springfield Township in the 1950s, volunteered for the Chestnut Hill Meals on Wheels program, and worked at the Bird in Hand consignment shop when it benefited Chestnut Hill Hospital.

A former substitute teacher for the elementary grades in the Springfield Township School District, she brought an appreciation for art to school children in the Philadelphia area through the Art Goes to School program. She also participated in the local Questers group dedicated to studying and preserving historical objects.

Mrs. Flanagan also had a lifelong love of horticulture and gardening. She served as president of the William Penn Oak Preservation Committee to save a 300-year-old tree on East Mill Road. in Flourtown, and was a benefactor and founding member of the Marengo Road Forest Reserve in Easton, Md., where she and her husband, Joseph P. Flanagan Jr., had a second home.

She also served on the Director's Guild at Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania and was an early supporter of the Whitemarsh Foundation and its mission to preserve Erdenheim Farm in Whitemarsh. For many years she was a member of the Junior League of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Cricket Club and parishioner of St, Genevieve Church in Flourtown.

Born Mary Elizabeth Mayock and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Mrs. Flanagan attended St. Ann's Academy in that city and graduated from Wyoming Seminary in Kingston. She received a bachelor's degree from Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart and took courses in the social work program at Fordham University.

An avid tennis player, she was a member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club inter-mural tennis team. She enjoyed bird watching, needlework, figure skating and cruising the Chesapeake Bay on a 35-foot sailboat. She traveled extensively in Europe and Asia.

In addition to her husband of 64 years, Mrs. Flanagan is survived by a son, Joseph P. Flanagan III, of Flourtown; a daughter, Maureen Elizabeth Flanagan, of Chestnut Hill; six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Two brothers and a sister preceded her in death.

A funeral Mass was celebrated Dec. 4 at St. Genevieve Catholic Church, with interment at St. Mary's Cemetery, Hanover Township, Pa. Memorial donations may be made to St. Genevieve Church, 1225 Bethlehem Pike, Flourtown, PA 19031. – WF

obituaries