Betty McKenzie Flagg

Betty Jane McKenzie Flagg of Brewster, MA, born on Valentine’s Day, 1922, passed away on June 11,2022, just three days short of Flag Day and the 100 year-four month mark. Born in Duncannon, PA, Betty moved as an infant to the Panama Canal Zone. Betty was daughter to the late Margaret and Sam McKenzie, sister to the late Marjorie McKenzie.

In the Canal Zone, Betty attended grammar and high school, then moved north to attend Bryant College in Providence, RI. While completing her Associate’s Degree, she met Paul Willis Flagg, a fellow student. Betty first applied her education and sharp secretarial and administrative skills at work for companies in Providence, then the couple married in Hamden, CT in September, 1942 and settled there. After Paul’s US Army service in WWII, the couple was reunited and welcomed their first born, Jeffrey Flagg, now of Austin, TX, into the family. A second son, Leslie Mark (Mary) of Whitefish Bay, WI, a daughter, Margey (Robert) of Titusville, FL, and a third son, Andrew (Sharon) of Burlington, VT joined the family between 1946 and 1954, by which time they had moved to Orange, CT.

By 1944 her parents had moved to a 272 acre farm in southern Tennessee where her father, Sam, had built a sprawling log cabin ranch home that would serve for years as a center for family gatherings. The farm was rugged, with wood-fire heating, a large country kitchen, and extensive gardens, where Margaret raised vegetables and canned shelves full of beets, pickles, blackberries, and prized peaches. Chickens and cows provided eggs and milk and the farm experience, while far from suburban Orange, CT exerted a lasting influence on Betty and the kids.

Ever active, Betty followed her mother’s model as a wonderful cook and baker, sharing her delicious pies, cakes, crisps and cookies with the family, neighbors, and members of the Orange, CT Women’s Club. Betty was also an avid gardener. With the help of husband Paul and the children, to whom she set a marvelous example of the joys of gardening, she cultivated vegetables and fruits – raspberries, and fruit trees - peaches, pears, and apples.

As the children moved into upper grades at school, Betty returned to secretarial work, quickly rising to become Administrative Assistant to the Dean of Yale School of Nursing. In her 20 year tenure, ending in 1983 she served four Deans. Yale University honored her service with a generous and memorable retirement celebration.

In addition to attendance at theatre at Long Wharf in New Haven, domestic and international and travel became an engaging activity for Betty and Paul. Trips to Spain, Germany, England, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, and cruises to Alaska and Panama were intermingled with trips to visit family and participation in Elder Hostel activities in Colorado, Texas, California, New Hampshire, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Florida.

Once retired to Brewster, MA, Betty continued her participation in community and cultural events. She volunteered for years at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, attended plays with Paul at the Cape Playhouse, worked with the Our Lady of the Cape Women’s Guild, appeared for work at the Thrift Shop well into her 90’s, and kept beautiful gardens and landscape in superb condition at home. She hosted children and grandchildren, fostering a love for the natural and human history of the Cape.

In Betty’s final years at Wingate and The Woodlands of Brewster she kept up her reading, her interest in local news and history, and enjoyed favorite dining spots such as Scargo Café, Impudent Oyster in Chatham, and The Bookstore in Wellfleet. Her nearly 40 years on the Cape had given her an exceptional sense of its hidden gems and byways, and until she stopped driving her own car when she turned 98, she could direct all of us to favorite destinations.

With all the proper ingredients for a recipe for happiness: love of family, service to others, interest and engagement in community, dedication, humility, intellectual curiosity, imagination and appreciation for the lives of others, Betty’s life was like a perfectly baked multi-layered cake, or a marvelous pie with slices enough for all to savor and say, “That’s an exemplary life of joy.”

A graveside service will be held on Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 11:00 AM in the Brewster Cemetery, Lower Rd., Brewster. A memorial mass will be held at a later date at Our Lady of the Cape Church in Brewster.