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Cause of death: Hodgkin's disease
Biography by Ann Flannagan 1-2001
Sources: Tom Flannagan, husband, Dorothy Wubben, mother, Jim Wubben, brother, Rosemary Wubben, sister-in-law and Josephine's own life story as a high school senior in May of 1953.
Josephine Ida Wubben was Dorothy Backstrom Wubben and Lawrence Wubben's first born child. She arrived April 9, l935. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Anna Josephina, and her paternal grandmother, Ida.
Josephine was baptized 2 weeks later, on Easter Sunday and went to elementary school at Nativity Catholic Elementary School in St. Paul. Dorothy recalled that Joey was a playful happy child with a bubbly outgoing personality, brown naturally curly hair and blue eyes. Josephine took first place in a Perfect Baby contest when she was one year old and was awarded a little silver cup. It was sponsored by a group that her next door neighbor and godmother belonged to. As a little girl, 2 and 3 years old, people would stop her mother on the street and tell her that Josephine looked like Shirley Temple.
Josephine had one younger brother, James, "Jim" and one younger sister, Kathleen, "Bunny." Jim said that he was particularly close to Josephine when he was in high school, that she was working and would make sure that he had spending money.
While in elementary school, Josephine was a Girl Scout and was in plays at the Edith Bush Theater in Highland Village. She also took dancing lessons; she had both tap and ballet and participated in several dance recitals.
Josephine attended Derham Hall High School, a prestigious school, located at the College of St. Catherine which only admitted 30 girls each year. In high school she took piano lessons and loved school dances. She had a blond streak in her hair and at one time got in trouble with the nuns because they thought she was bleaching her hair. She liked cross stitch and was patient enough to complete several large table cloths. She graduated from Derham Hall in June of 1953.
After high school, Josephine pursued nurses training at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester. While working as a nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in St. Paul, she met Tom Flannagan who was an orderly there and attending the University of Minnesota. They were married at the Nativity parish house by Father Steiner in St. Paul in l956.
Tom and Josephine had three boy babies in a row: Daniel Patrick on February 26th, l957, William Thomas on August 9th, l958 and John Arthur, October 18th, l959. While raising babies and working as a nurse, she was also sharing the caretaking responsibilities in the apartment building with Tom.
According to Tom, Josephine was easy going, good humored, a good sport and even tempered. She enjoyed grouse and pheasant hunting with Tom, sometimes staying with Backstrom grandparents in Fairmont, Minnesota. They would also occasionally take in a movie and get together with friends and play 500 Rummy. Josephine was a good cook and liked to make up recipes.
Sadly, at the age of only 25 years old, she found out that she had Hodgkins disease and died a year and a half later on July 18th, l961. Josephine was buried at the Fort Snelling Cemetery in St. Paul.
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