Esther C. Flanagan

Esther Coyne Flanagan died on December 2, 2024 at her home, surrounded by her family.

Esther was born on December 9, 1927, in Wilmington, DE. She was the daughter of Esther Ploucher Coyne and William Carroll Coyne. After the death of her father and the later marriage of her mother to Dr. George Manley, she came to Norwich. She attended the Norwich schools, graduated from St. Margaret’s School, and attended Connecticut College. Esther was also one of only a small number of people to receive an honorary degree from Mercersburg Academy when the youngest of her seven sons graduated in 1984. 

On September 11, 1948, Esther married Dr. Thomas M. Flanagan. They lived in New York City while Dr. Flanagan completed his surgical residency and came back to Norwich in 1951 where Dr. Flanagan established his medical practice.

Esther loved Norwich and was very active in the community over the years, serving on several boards and committees and as a volunteer. She was one of the first two women to serve on the YMCA Board of Directors, was a member of the City Planning Commission for 13 years, and a trustee of the Greater Norwich Foundation for 39 years. Esther helped launch the “Hospital Follies” in the 1960s to raise money for Chenango Memorial, and she was an early volunteer and avid supporter of Colorscape and the Chenango Arts Council. She and her husband were lifelong advocates of the Historical Society. An article in the Evening Sun years ago noted, “She has been involved with almost every volunteer organization in Norwich. And this has not consisted of merely lending her name to a board or publicizing an enterprise. She was one of the workers, whether as a teacher’s aide at St. Paul’s School or as the ‘wheel’ in Meals on Wheels.” 

A Cub Scout den mother in the early years, Esther continued to serve as an unofficial den mother for her sons’ many friends for decades.

Esther loved music, had a beautiful singing voice, and was an accomplished classical pianist at an early age. While tennis was her favorite sport, she was game for anything - including golf, skiing, skeet shooting, bowling, tennis, paddle tennis at the Lost Pond Club, or following bird dogs for days on horseback at field trials around the country. Esther met her future husband, who lived next door, playing football. After they were married, he taught her how to shoot, and she won a New York Ladies Skeet Championship in 1955. 

Esther and Tom loved to entertain, and she was a gracious hostess, whether it was a Cornell or Syracuse tailgate, a field trial party, Christmas Eve, the Manley Open tennis tournament, or one of their epic New Year’s Eve parties that kicked off at midnight. 

She had many and varied interests and treasured her friends, near and far. She always said, however, that her greatest love and joy came from being with her husband and their large family. In the end, she proved to be what her sons always suspected – the toughest strip of bark in the forest.

Esther’s husband, Dr. Flanagan, died in 2015. She is survived by their seven sons: Thomas M. and wife, Carol; Timothy J. and wife, Nancy; Peter C. and wife, Kathryn; Stephen M. and former wife, Jane; William G.; David C. and wife, Linda; and Patrick J. and wife, Erinn. She also leaves behind 17 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, two sisters - Margaret Manley Hood Tower and Patricia Manley Smith - and many nieces and nephews. Besides her husband, her parents, and her stepfather, Esther was predeceased by brothers, William Coyne and William Carroll Coyne, Jr., and a sister, Sara Coyne Dickinson.

She had a deep and abiding faith which sustained her and comforted her family. She was a member of St. Paul’s Parish for almost 90 years.

A Mass of Christian Burial for Esther will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 21, 2024 at St. Paul’s Church, where Rev. Ralph Bove will officiate. Friends are invited to call at the Wilson Funeral Home on Friday, December 20, 2024 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Burial will take place at a later date at St. Paul’s Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution in Esther’s memory to the Greater Norwich Foundation, c/o NBT Bank, 52 South Broad St., Norwich, NY 13815, or to the Norwich Family YMCA, 68-70 North Broad St., Norwich, NY 13815.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted with John Antonowicz of the Wilson Funeral Home.