Stephen Francis Flynn

Stephen Francis Flynn

1932 – 2024

Stephen Francis Flynn died peacefully in his sleep on September 11. He was born to recent immigrants from Ireland, James Flynn, and Beatrice Patterson Flynn, on January 17, 1932, in New York City. Steve, as he was known, was the youngest brother of Kevin, Kathleen, and Patricia. After graduating from Rice High School in the Bronx, he attended Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. Upon graduation, he served in the Army for 2 years where he was stationed at Fort Myers, near Washington DC.  He had Top Secret security clearance and was a courier transporting classified documents both domestically and internationally during the Korean War, including stops in Pyongyang and Moscow.

In 1956 he married his high school sweetheart, Catherine (Kitty) Marie Susan Garcia. They settled on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and he started work in marketing at Bonwit Tellers on Fifth Avenue where he once met Marilyn Monroe who came into the store asking what time Tiffany’s opened.  Upon the birth of their first daughter, Karen Elizabeth, in 1957 he moved to Shell Oil where he ultimately spent more than 30 years.  Their family grew with the addition of Stephen Michael in 1959 and Christine Mary in 1962, moving to Bethpage, NY  then Englishtown, NJ.

In 1970 his work with Shell took the family first to the San Francisco Bay Area and eventually to settle in Houston, TX. Steve loved to travel and upon his retirement in 1991, sailed the world with Kitty, visiting nearly every continent.  Steve and Kitty loved to dance, entertaining many a fellow cruise passengers and family members out on the dance floor. 

As he grew older, he focused a lot of love and attention on his grandchildren, Claire Elizabeth McConnell Coles, and Michael Flynn McConnell. He would rarely miss Michael’s tennis matches or Claire’s track meets, where he brought his own stopwatch and stood for hours in the hot Texas and Oklahoma sun. He danced the night away, at nearly 90 years old, at his granddaughter’s wedding in 2021 and regularly took to the dance floor at Epworth Senior Living Facility in Oklahoma City, where he and Kitty lived in his final years.

Steve is survived by his loving wife, Kitty Flynn; his 3 children, Karen and her spouse Roger Fulton, Stephen and his spouse Matthew Lessall, and Christine and her spouse Michael McConnell; his grandchildren, Claire and her spouse Kyle Coles, and Michael and his fiancée Melissa (Missy) Downs; and his older sister Patricia Brekka who recently turned 95 and numerous nieces and nephews.

Family and friends will celebrate Steve with a Remembrance Service on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at 2:00 pm in Brill Chapel at Epworth Villa, Oklahoma City, OK. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org), in his name, Stephen F. Flynn.