Jane Ellen Flood

Jane Ellen was the 11th of 13 children born to Patrick Francis Flood and Mary Hester Cullen Flood. Born at home on March 6, 1937 in the Bronx, Jane attended St. Barnabas Elementary and St. Barnabas High School, and spent the next 15 years in the order of the Sisters of Charity of New York, following in the footsteps of her elder sisters Winifred and Anne.

Her first assignment after brief novitiate training was to teach a class of 54 fourth graders at Saint Francis of Assisi Elementary in Mount Kisco, Westchester County. She later taught 7th and 8th grade girls at St. Raymond’s School in the Bronx. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from the College of Mount Saint Vincent and a Master of Arts in Spanish from Fordham University.

Jane left religious life in 1969, after Vatican II, and rented an apartment in Stamford, Connecticut. By posting an ad in the New York Times, she had found employment teaching at Burdick Junior High School in Stamford. Her first year of living alone was memorable and she would tell stories about it well into her eighties, including the time her father decided she would host Thanksgiving dinner in her tiny apartment. There was also a painful tale of taking nephews Steven, Christopher, and David for a day at the beach without any sunscreen. Jane took advantage of the fashion opportunities afforded laypeople, and her students noted to her that they would spot her around town “lookin’ real cool”.

The following year, Jane began a decades-long career teaching Spanish in the Somers Central School District in Westchester County. At Somers she became Vice President of the Teachers’ union and made many lifelong friends, including Rosemary Dowling, a colleague who was President of the union. Those years were characterized by her unflagging energy.

In 1983, Jane married Larry K. Clare, a New York State motorcycle trooper whose adult daughter, Sara (Mazzone), by previous marriage, became Jane’s beloved stepdaughter. Jane and Larry made their home in Bronxville, NY and Jane was widowed when Larry died in 1992. Larry and Jane hosted numerous family gatherings and it was during this time that Jane forged a particularly strong bond with her brother John’s son, Eric, one of the few only children in the Flood family.

After that, Jane and her younger sister Margaret, who resided in the same building, decided to share a household and were a source of great company and mutual support for each other for the next 30 years, relocating to Stamford in 2013. Wherever they lived, they usually had lovely pet cats, a flower garden, and surrounded themselves with art and music.

Jane and Margaret adopted their mother’s appreciation for opera and ballet and would often take family members to performances at Lincoln Center. They bought season tickets to the Metropolitan Opera and would frequent the Stage Door to complement the artists in person. Jane was possessed of a particular charm. She would dress very elegantly but she would communicate in a warm, down-to-earth manner and she would befriend everyone. She especially seized opportunities to speak Spanish.

Jane’s favorite place was the beach. Margaret had a second home at Mastic Beach, Long Island that they would visit frequently. After lending her Spanish skills to a lifeguard during a rescue, she met chief lifeguard and widower Joseph Dooley, Sr. The two fell in love and spent as much time as possible together until his death in 1999. Jane developed a fond relationship with his adult children, especially his daughter Therese, with whom Jane traveled to Ireland in 2001.

Travel was another of Jane’s main pursuits. She visited Ireland many times and used that time to connect with family members and build strong connections that benefit all of her extended family. She also traveled to visit her niece Maureen Cestari in Florida, and took trips with friends to Mexico. She and Margaret went to Paris several times, and in 2009 she celebrated her 72nd birthday in Barcelona with Margaret and some friends.

Jane’s way of being in the world was unique and characterized by warmth and competence. It was Jane who took on the paperwork challenge of getting her mother in-home care during her final years. She helped all of her nieces and nephews in times of difficulty in practical ways. Jane also was the one to navigate the Irish foreign births registry and obtained all the documents necessary to help other family members obtain Irish citizenship along with her and Margaret.

While everyone appreciated Jane’s organizing efforts, terrific cooking, and extensive knowledge about the family, she will be best remembered for being FUN. Jane danced the Macarena when it was still cool. She danced the YMCA. She danced Irish jigs. She would always jump in the water and swim, and play with everyone. Nobody was a stranger in her orbit. She would really get to know what interested each person and she would share the things that delighted her. Oh, and she would laugh and cry and always tell stories, the funny ones and the tragic ones.

Jane was too familiar with grief and loss. Worrying about her older brother Bob when he was in a POW camp in Germany when she was only 7, losing her youngest brother Vincent in a plane crash when he was only 19 and she was 23, then losing her father and her older

sister Winnie in her thirties, losing both Larry and Joe, and perhaps hardest of all, losing her sister Margaret in 2022. In recent years she contended with chronic pain, falls and injuries due to osteoporosis, which limited her mobility and stamina. She coped with loss and hardship with a strong sense of connection to all her loved ones who had died before her, who she called her “angelitos”. It is a great comfort to all who are grieving for Jane to imagine her being welcomed into her new life by her legion of overjoyed angels.

Jane is survived by many beloved nieces and nephews, sisters-in-law Joan Flood and Mary-Louise Flood, and by scores of extended family members and friends. She was predeceased by her parents and all 12 of her siblings. She leaves a legacy of deep ties in her extended family, in our appreciation for each other, our connection to our homeland of Ireland, and our appreciation for the arts, fashion, cats, social justice, stories, laughter and the love that she lavished upon us. We are so, so grateful to have known her.

There will be a Visitation on Friday, November 21st at Leo P. Gallagher & Son Funeral Home at 2900 Summer St. in Stamford, Connecticut from 11 AM to 12 PM. The service will be from 12 PM to 12:30 PM at the funeral home. Interment will be at the Gate of Heaven at 5 Bradhurst Avenue, Hawthorne, NY. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her memory to Casa de las Comunidades Catholic Worker Community in Albuquerque, NM or to your local pet shelter.