Source: TRIBUNE-RECORD-GLEANER (Clark County, Wis.) 03/14/2001
 

Flynn, John Alvin (1911 - 2001)

John Alvin Flynn, 89, died on Tuesday, March 6, 2001, at St. Joseph's Hospital, Marshfield. A Masonic funeral service was held at 11 a.m., on Saturday, March 10, at the Gesche Funeral Home, Neillsville, Mason president, Jerry Opelt, officiated. Interment was in the Neillsville City Cemetery.

John Alvin Flynn was born on Oct. 8, 1911, in Kendallville, Iowa, to James Albert and Amelia Agnes Flynn. He married Gladys Irene Hamm on June 27, 1935. During World War II, he was a production supervisor at the naval ordinance plant in Hawthorne, Nev. After the war, he bought a blacksmith shop in Waucoma, Iowa. In 1952, they moved to Neillsville, where he worked for the Coast to Coast store delivering bottle gas and doing appliance installation. Several years later, he went to Auto-Test Inc. He worked there designing and making production tools. He also worked at Neillsville Milk Products and the Wells Fargo Stagecoach Co. He was a past Mater in the Free and Accepted Masons and past Worthy Patron of the Eastern Star. He was the last of at least four generations of blacksmiths. He began smithing at the age of 12. He had a wide field of interests and mechanical abilities. He built an automatic machine that made clocks. One of his pastimes was making miniature tools that worked like big ones. He liked to sail box- and x-wing kites.

He was preceded in death by his parents his wife, Gladys Irene Hamm Flynn three sisters, Alberta Mae, Mary Katherine, and Bernadetta Louis and one brother, James Henry.

Survivors include two sons, John Charles Flynn and Michael William Flynn seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Gesche Funeral Home, Neillsville, assisted the family with arrangements.