Marion Hoyt Flanigan, 86 of Swansea, beloved wife of Paul F. Flanigan, passed away on March 5 at Charlton Memorial Hospital, after a long illness. She was born in Stamford, CT., the daughter of Leroy Weed Hoyt of North Stamford and Marion Rowland Hoyt, originally of Beacon, NY. After the early death of her mother Marion she was lovingly cared for by her stepmother Margaret Budelman Hoyt. She had one brother, John Leroy Hoyt who died in Fall River in 2001.
Her survivors include her husband of 60 years, Paul, her 3 children Martha, Ruth and Thomas, their spouses Maurice Durette Jr., William Gucfa and Katherine Kickel, and 2 grandchildren, Lily Gucfa and Colin Flanigan.
Her secondary and college education were in West Hartford CT., where she attended Mt. St. Mary Academy and St. Joseph College (now university. At St. Joseph she was a member of the Shakespeare Theater group, Queen’s Company, and played several of Shakespeare’s major characters, notably Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale and Rosalind in As You Like It. Subsequently she followed her love of literature to Columbia University, where she earned her M.A. in 1950, writing her thesis on the comic spirit in John Donne. After her graduation from Columbia, she made many schoolchildren happy by teaching at the Lowe-Heywood School in Stamford CT. for 2 years, until her marriage in 1952.
From 1952-1961 she lived for relatively brief periods of time in West Hartford, CT, Boston and San Diego. In 1961 Swansea became her permanent home.
After her children were grown she returned to the workplace and served for 25 years as a staff reporter for the Fall River Herald News. She was a founding member of the local newspaper guild. She covered many front-page events at all hours of the day or night, most regretfully the Notre Dame Fire.
Her organizations included Our Lady of Fatima Women’s Guild, The Fall River Women’s Club and the Fortnightly Club, of which she was a recent President. Perhaps her favorite volunteer activity was lectoring at her parish church, Our Lady of Fatima (now St. Francis of Assisi). Her eloquent and meaningful readings of Scripture are still fondly remembered.
Marion had a gift for friendship and hospitality from which many people benefitted, especially her family. Her interests and enthusiasms were inexhaustible and her good nature boundless. She loved the outdoors, camping, fishing, gardening, cookouts, plain air sketching and travel. Both professionally and in private life she was a devoted champion of the arts, education, and preservation.
She was a fine poet. Her verse is collected in a volume entitled The Pale Cast of Thought, edited by her son Thomas. To her family, however, she was always above all an inexpressibly wonderful wife, mother and grandmother. In the words of her beloved Shakespeare, may “Flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest!”
Her funeral will take place on Fri. March 8, 2013 at 8AM from the WARING-SULLIVAN HOME OF MEMORIAL TRIBUTE AT BIRCHCREST, 189 Gardners Neck Road, Swansea followed by a funeral mass at 9AM in St. Francis of Assisi Church, 530 Gardners Neck Road, Swansea. Burial will be private. Visiting hours Thursday 5-8PM.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18