| Notes |
- Biographical note for:
My father T.W. Flannagan, by Molly Flannagan
Family History Project, Period 6, 1/24/89
Tom Flannagan was born in St. Paul, MN on September 2, l931. His recollection of his first home is distant: yellow street cars clanging up brick and wood block streets, "Jack Armstrong All American Boy" on the huge shiny radio. He has a more clear memory of his life at Mille Lacs Lake. He lived on a farm just outside Onamia, MN. He went to school in classroom with 2 and 3 grades and one teacher. He remembers his second and third grade teachers clearly. "One weighed about 300 pounds, and the other was as thin as a rail, wore hornrimmed glasses, and was cursed with really bad breath." He was living with his grandparents whose major appliances included a wood cook stove, a coal furnace and a wringer washer. Contrary to poplular stories he did not walk 5 miles to school, in snow knee deep, uphill both ways. He rode a big yellow bus.
When he was about 9 he moved to Wahoo, Nebraska, with his Dad. They lived in an apartment above a restaurant. Because his Dad worked all day and into the night at a hardware store, Tom and his "evil" sidekick, Mo, had plenty of time to get into trouble. Frequently their pranks ended up with them in the police station with Percy Blair, unfortunately for Tom, a friend of his Dad's.
A few pennies went a long way - 1 for a small bag of candy, 2 for a "Holloway" sucker ("when they said all day they were serious", he recalled), 5 for a whole bottle of Coca-Cola. A trip to the barber cost one quarter. The dentist used no pain killer and Doc Haliberton's anemia test was a chart of red dots on a wall that he compared patients' blood to. On special occasions his Dad would take him to Omaha in his '35 Ford and they'd gorge on huge steaks for $1.25.
In 1941 Tom's father was drafted into the Army to pay his patriotic dues. At that time a huge munitions plant was being built just outside of town.
Tom moved back to Onamia. Sugar and gas were rationed, and Grandma connived to get enough sugar to can fruits and vegetables from her huge garden. In school there were competitions to see which class could collect the most milkweed pods to "Save Our Boys from Drowning". Switching to high school was a big move: from 12 to 40 people per class expanded social possibilities. His first date his senior year was with a chubby, "brassy" yet popular girl named Bernice. Unfortunately for Bernice, he had to break up in a couple months because he was "smitten with the banker's daughter, Billie Benzie". Being a clever 5'10" 128 pound popsickle stick, Tom always felt like he had to prove that he wasn't a wimp. Scholastics was forgotten and athletics were pursued. He was on practically every team and made up in aggression what he lacked in size. He earned his spending money working summers in the North Dakota wheat fields. $180.00 went pretty far when a date only cost about 5 dollars.
After graduation, in 1949, Tom duped a couple friends into joining the paratroopers with him, to prove he wasn't that afraid of heights. they didn't need new members, so the Marines was the next best (most dangerous) thing. But luckily, since the Korean War loomed in the future, the Marines weren't admitting either, so they all joined the Air Force. Tom was offered a position in the OSS (Office of the Secret Service) due to his extremely high test scores, but declined because his friends couldn't get in too. In 1953 he was discharged, honorably if only by a hair.
While on duty one rainy night at Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi, Private Tom decided to give the guy on the earlier shift a ride to the highway, 3 miles away. It was pouring huge sheets of water and Tom saw oncoming head lights. He slammed on the brakes of his 1949 Plymouth, slid in the mud and landed on top of a fire hydrant. Two hours later the road was still closed and he was in the county jail. He eventually got bailed out by a furious officer, and 2 weeks of KP was shortened by his discharge.
After this stint of service, Tom went to Detroit. He heard he could make a fortune working 2 shifts in the auto factories. He didn't get rich, but he made an important acquaintance in 1953. He ate his first pizza. A rather strange idea, but soon he was addicted. The most important discoveries, he felt, that happened during his life were penicillin, followed by the polio vaccine and television.
o---------------------------------------------------------o
Biographical note for:
Husband Thomas William Flannagan by Ann Crewson Flannagan, January 1997
This is to pick up from Molly's account above. Tom reported that during his time in the Air Force his job was to repair radios. He was stationed for one year on the Island of Shemya. He still has several glass floats which he found washed up on the sand there from Japanese fishing nets. From there he went to Keesler Field in Biloxi for a total of 3 1/2 years.
After the Detroit experience Tom came back to St. Paul, lived with Grandma and went to the University of Minnesota. He got a job as an orderly at St. Lukes hospital in St. Paul where he met Josephine Wubben, his first wife and mother of his 3 boys, Daniel Patrick, William Thomas and John Arthur. (See Notes on Josephine Wubben.) During those few years he worked at a warehouse, and as an orderly, was caretaker for the apartment building where they lived and went to college full time, earning a BA degree in Psychology. After Josephine died, Tom was anxious to get his life back together again so married quickly. The marriage only lasted a couple years and ended in a bitter divorce with major negative financial consequences for Tom.
During this time, in spite of personal problems, Tom's career was steadily building successfully. He started as a counselor for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and then was hired by the Mpls Rehabilitation Center. In the summer of 1966 Tom was hired as the Program Coordinator at the Mankato Rehabilitation Center. He rented a house in the country and the boys bused to school in Mankato. We met that year because he was my supervisor. After only 1 1/2 years in Mankato, Tom accepted the Executive Director position at the Austin Achievement Center, later to be named the Cedar Valley Rehabilitation Workshop (CVRW). Tom is known throughout the state of Minnesota for his leadership in the field of vocational rehabilitation. He joined a national acceditation organization, CARF, trained annually in Tucson, Arizona and was sent to sheltered workshops all over the country for annual surveys, doing approx one a month for years. In the late 80s when he decided to stop doing the surveys, he had the distinction of having done more than any other one person, a total of 125. He was also called upon to testify as to employability in unemployment compensaton hearings from time to time. He published articles on job placement for persons with disabilities in 2 professional journals.
We were married in the summer of 1968. We lived in Austin for 12 years at 2007 SW 8th Avenue, and added 2 daughters, Molly Ann and Susan Jo, to our family. Tom took night and weekend classes through Mankato State University and earned a master's degree in Vocational Rehabilitation. Every chance we had to recreate, we headed north to favorite lakes and woods so when the Executive Director position at the Goodwill Industries/Duluth Sheltered Workshop in Duluth opened, Tom could not resist applying. He was hired there in the winter of 1979. During his first 6 months on the job, he lived with my parents at 46 6th street in Cloquet and communted to Goodwill Industries in the old Goldfine Building.
We sold our house that spring and luckily, in the nick of time, found a place we liked in Duluth in the country at 6919 Rice Lake Road. We moved ourselves in rental UHaul trucks with the help of our children and my parents and brother Tom, and spent the first night in our new home on July 1st, l980. Sue was a preschooler and Molly in 4th grade at Homecroft school our first year here.
It is now 17 years later. Our extra bedrooms are empty except for weekend visitors. Tom is 65 but finding it hard to retire because his board of directors is very complimentary and generous with giving him extra vacation and salary increases to encourage him to stay longer. Goodwill is very profitable and both programatically and financially stable.
Tom continues to love hunting and fishing. He has every possible piece of gear. He reads constantly and loves movies. He will watch whatever it is he has rented, to the bitter end, no matter how bad it is. Much to the annoyance of everyone around him, and in spite of increasingly violent episodes of coughing, he continues to steadfastly smoke as many Pall Malls as he possible can, swearing that they are no problem for him, apparantly not caring what a problem they are for anyone else. He doesn't have to hit Las Vegas once a year anymore, because now he has the local casinos to lose money playing Blackjack. He loves to eat out, but moreso, to buy food. Hardly a day goes by that he doesn't hit the grocery store. He is an excellent cook and looks forward to his "delicious suppers" every day. His favorite foods are a hot beef sandwich, roast beef or pork chops, always with mashed potatos and gravy.
Tom cares deeply about his dogs. His beloved Shag would jump on and bite strangers so after several instances, Tom gave Shag to a family in the country. In Austin we searched for Golden Retrievers. Our first and legendary was Cinnamon Sam. During that same time we also had Cinnamon Peach. Peach died of a uterine infection when we were still in Austin. Sam moved with us, but was arthritic at the time and what "put to sleep" in order to take him out of his misery. When we moved to Duluth, one of our house warming gifts was a Golden puppy from Sue and Larry. We named her Penny and grew very fond of her. She was hit by a car on the Rice Lake Road in her first year and we had her broken hip repaired at the University Vet school in St. Paul. I wasn't working at the time so I did physical therapy with her every day. She recovered fully and avoided the highway after that. During the next few years, we bought a little black Cocker Spaniel, Buddy, for Susie. He looked like a different dog after a haircut. He prefered Sue and disliked noisy little people. In fact, he would nip at children and had to be locked in the back hall when kids were around. One cold night we let him out on the deck to relieve himself and he disappeared up to the highway. When he did not come back inpromptly, I knew something was wrong and found him, dead, on the side of the highway.
In 1987, the infamous year when Molly was doing chemo therapy, Penny stopped eating. We discovered that she had a cancerous mass in her belly and when we heard that the only hope for her would be chemo therapy, we decided to let her go to save her and ourselves the pain. One family member in chemo therapy was enough! Shortly after that, with a household of people seeming to be wallowing in sadness, I saw an add for Great Pyranees puppies and talked Tom and the girls into just looking. As we went down the people's stairs and saw about 10 little "white mountain" puppies, Susie spoke for all of us when she said, "I'm in love." We were all hooked. We called her Gracie because she was our Saving Grace. She was the biggest female, one of the few who had blue eyes and she had a peace sign design in light brown fir on her white head. Tom was especially fond of Gracie, laying and cuddling with her every day, giving her treats and letting her have her way. Obviously she favored him. He took her to obedience classes, much to our entertainment, week after week, and never learned to come, much less sit or lie down on command. Gracie never lost her need to patrol our yard and the highway, continuing for her 9 1/2 years. She was found dead in the ditch along the Rice Lake Road last summer and is buried along the edge of our woods.
A few years ago, missing having a Golden for retrieving and for their sweet personality, Tom and I answered an add and picked out a cute one. We named her Bobbi and have her at this time. She has been hit on the road too; it seems to have helped her to stay away, but when we leave she is in her pen.
Tom looks forward to our kids coming home for weekend visits and seems to be particulary cheerful when they leave for their own homes. He likes time to read and nap and hug his dog. He has supper ready for me when I get home from work and seems content with a quiet routine and less demands. He looks forward to selling our home and moving to a lake place over by Lake Winnie. Time will tell....
|
1931 - 2002 (70 years)
[6]