Flynn’s Turn store founder fondly remembered
TRENT LAKES – The patriarch who opened Flynn’s General Store decades ago and for whom the nearby corner would be named is being remembered as a caring man who was always there for others.
Thomas Cecil “Tom” Flynn, of Flynn’s Turn, died Saturday at his birth home, known as the Flynn homestead. He was 84.
“He was always there for the community and his family,” his daughter Margaret Gillingham said Wednesday from the store, where friends have been dropping by this week to pass along their condolences. “There wasn’t a time when you couldn’t count on dad for anything.”
The businessman and former teacher who taught for 35 years in Peterborough County was also well-known in minor hockey circles and once received an award for his outgoing nature, Gillingham said.
Former student Russ Hedges called Mr. Flynn a “great guy.
“I will never forget the look on his face when he was disciplining me for putting a thumb tack under the rear end of one of my classmates back in Grade 7 at Otonabee Valley School in 1967,” he wrote in an email.
Aside from his love for hockey, Mr. Flynn was also a Freemason who loved reading – in fact, he would read at the library in the summer, Gillingham said.
The store on County Road 507 just north of County Road 36 helped keep Mr. Flynn abreast of what was going on – he was its CEO since the early 1970s.
“He really enjoyed the store,” Gillingham said, reflecting on the legacy her dad created that continues with a third generation working there today. “My sister (Michelle Connell) and I are very proud.”
Mr. Flynn was predeceased by his wife Muriel Joan (nee McClean) in 1998, parents and four brothers. He had four grandchildren.
Visitation will take place at Hendren Funeral Homes — Lakefield Chapel at 66 Queen St. in Lakefield from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday. A Masonic memorial service will also take place Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
A funeral service will take place at Lakefield United Church at 47 Regent St. on Friday at 11 a.m. with interment at Sandy Lake Cemetery in Lakehurst. A reception will follow at the Lakehurst Hall.
Memorial donations can be made to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation – home peritoneal dialysis by contacting the funeral home at www.hendrenfuneralhom.com or 705-652-3355.