Barbara J. Flynn died at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital on July 30. She was 81.
Born on January 1, 1933, in Boston, Barbara was raised in South Boston. As a young girl she loved the city. She would walk to downtown Boston with her friends. She spent many summer days at Carson Beach and Castle Island in Southie. Her parents took trips to New Hampshire, where Barbara climbed Mt. Washington as a teenager.
Barbara went to school and also worked at a bakery when she was a young girl. She worked at a bank during high school. She was able to leave high school a few months before graduation because her skills were so great and the president of the bank really needed her.
Barbara graduated from South Boston High School in 1950. She continued to work.
Barbara married, and then had her three loving children.
Barbara and Joe raised their family in Rockland, Scituate, South Yarmouth, and Brookline. They also had a home in beautiful Black Cat Island in Moultonboro, N.H.
After Joe died, Barbara took her three kids to start a new life on Martha’s Vineyard.
Barbara worked at the department of public welfare in Oak Bluffs as a social worker from 1978 to 2004. She loved her job to the utmost. She also worked at the Capawock Theater in Vineyard Haven.
When her daughter Karen became proprietor of The Bite in 1988, Barbara handled all of the paperwork and books, along with her full-time job.
She was an amazing, hard-working woman who raised her children on her own. Barbara was a devoted mother, grandmother, and pet lover to her many cats through the years.
Barbara loved to travel with her family. She took many trips to Disney World, Palm Beach and the Caribbean. Family vacations and weekends to Boston will be remembered fondly.
Barbara suffered a stroke in July 2013. The last year of her life her three children loved and cared for daily. They were so blessed to spend that time with her.
Barbara was predeceased by her husband, Joseph M. Flynn, her parents, John and Mary (Berutis) Yankuns from Lithuania and South Boston, and her brother, John Yankuns, and his wife, Peg.
She leaves behind her beloved children Karen M. Flynn, Michael J. Flynn and Jacqueline Flynn-Morgan and her husband, Charles, and her adored granddaughter Mary, all of West Tisbury. She also leaves her great-nephew Peter Yankuns of Tampa, Fla.
Barbara had a wonderful loving extended family, and she will be so missed by them all.
A funeral Mass was held on August 4 at St. Peter’s Lithuanian church in South Boston. Barbara was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston. Her life will be celebrated here on Martha’s Vineyard at a later date.