Florence Henrietta Pymer was born on January 26, 1928 in Columbus Ohio, the youngest child of George, a plastering contractor and Ethel Pymer. Flo was extremely close to her brother Bob, and her sister Joanne. She grew emotional remembering the jobless men whom her mother fed on the back porch during the depression, the hunt to find Hawaii on a globe on December 7, 1941, the endless fun with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins now passed, and the long hours of physical labor her father worked. Mom had a huge heart for laborers and their hard work.
Flo married John D. Macklin Jr. in 1954 and joined him on Air Force assignments in Germany, Alabama, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Hawaii, and Texas. When they settled in Rollingwood after he retired from the Air Force, it was a sleepy, somewhat rugged, partially developed suburb. Flo said that best thing about the location was that the school bus stop was just down the block, and the kids (Meadow, John, and Ben) would not have to ride for very long on the bus to school. They moved to Rollingwood in 1970 and Flo began making an impact in the community almost immediately.
Flo became friends with so many wonderful neighbors through projects to improve the lives of people fortunate enough to live in “The Wood,” and Westlake. She worked on all of these “ministries” for years and years: the Eanes School directory, Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church, the “No Zoo in Zilker” campaign, Now or Never, Wild Basin, Meals on Wheels, Save our Springs, the City of Rollingwood, Eanes ISD, Rollingwood Women’s Club, Republican Women’s Club, Bible Study Fellowship, the Westbank Library, the Rollingwood History Project, the 4th of July parades, Manos de Christo, the Rollingwood Street Walkers, and dozens of other fundraisers, campaigns, walks, and bake sales. To the many other activities not mentioned that you know she was involved in, I’m sorry, there were just so many. Flo freely lent her energy, honesty, heart, work ethic, money, time, and intellect to dozens of worthy causes and wondered why we all wouldn’t do the same so we could make this world a better place.
Flo lived to assist, persist, preserve, protect, persuade, provide, continue, organize, serve, advise, persevere, and above all, finish. All these were aspects of her servant leadership. She should have been Lt. Governor but she’d never run for office. Instead, she served. She wanted Wild Basin to be a place where people could see undisturbed nature. She wanted the Bee Hive to be a ministry for elderly people so they wouldn’t be isolated and lonely. She served Meals on Wheels for almost 5 decades so that shut-ins could enjoy the care that Flo and her friend Erin Carlson provided. She was super faithful and servant-hearted through Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church, fulfilling the call to love through serving since she moved here. She served Rollingwood as an organizing defender, a welcoming neighbor, a kind helper, a concerned activist, and unfortunately for some, a vocal opponent. To her last week, she was fighting to keep commercial interests out of the heart of her beloved Rollingwood. She was a big part of Rollingwood’s charm, along with too many to name because this is expensive and Flo wouldn’t want us to spend money on telling her story here.
The family would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the Staff and Residents of Brookdale Westlake Hills Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing for their friendship and loving care of Flo.
A memorial service will be held at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church, 7127 Bee Caves Rd., to see who loves Flo more than football. A livestream of the memorial service may be viewed on the church website, whpc.org.
Meadow and Bobby, John and Sally, Ben and Shaun, Seth and Jungwha, Elizabeth and John David, Sam and Abbie, Sarah, Kevin, Joe, Kyle, Takiyah, Josiah, Emily, Ben and William will all be there. Please come help us have a great time remembering Flo, singing, celebrating, and glorifying the God who changed her into the servant-hearted mom/Flo/gaga/Grandma Flo/Flo-jo/Bossy Flossy who wanted to fix her corner of the world for you.
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