Roberta Lois Flanagan

Roberta Lois Flanagan passed away on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 at her home in West Hills, CA after a long, courageous, battle with cancer. Roberta and her twin brother, Robert, were born to Sigrid and Clarence Coleman at home on a farm in Webster County, Iowa on Nov. 24, 1940. Her older sister, Marilyn (Woode) was born in November, 5 years earlier, and her younger sister, Evelyn (Lantz) was born in November, 5 years later.

Roberta had to learn how to operate a tractor on the farm when she was 7 years old. She attended a small town school and was one of six in her high school graduating class. Nonetheless, she was on her school’s basketball team when it went to the Iowa State championships. She moved to California in October, 1964 after graduating from American Business Institute, Des Moines, and working for the Iowa Highway Commission in Ames.

When she came to California she lived with her Aunt Esther Robinson and cousins Charles and Marian (Whedon). She obtained a job with Safeco Insurance Company in Panorama City in policy typing and was soon promoted to receptionist. There, she obtained the attention of one of the Safeco attorneys, Richard Flanagan, despite the company policy against employee fraternization. They dated and soon decided to get married, but to wait for a year to do so. On July 23, 1966 they married at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Van Nuys.

They moved to their home in West Hills the following year and have lived in the same home for the past 49 years. They were blessed with two children, Ann (Mellon) and Mary (Hart) and four grandchildren, Justin, Brendan, Daniel, and Hailey. She was preceded in death by her twin brother Robert, who was killed in an accident just days before their 21st birthday, and her parents, Sigrid and Clarence Coleman.

She is survived by her husband, Richard, of 50 years, her daughters Ann & Mary, her son-in-laws Frank Mellon and Mike Hart, her grandchildren, Justin, Brendan and Hailey Hart and Daniel Mellon, and her sisters Marilyn and Evelyn, her family, friends, neighbors, and strangers with whom she shared her gentleness, love and compassion. She deeply touched so many lives and left the world better than she found it. Her gift to us was to teach us how to live as she accepted her transition into eternity.