Florence Connors, Midlife Art Hobby Lasted Half A Century, 105
DGH
Florence Connors, a homemaker from Medford, Massacusetts, who later
lived in Centerville, Massachusetts, died January 18 at Harborside
Healthcare in Mashpee, Massachusetts, of natural causes, at the age of
105.
Florence Mary (Taylor) Connors found herself alone in 1957 after 40
years of marriage and decided it was the perfect time to explore her
lifelong interest in art.
At age 59, following the death of her husband John Joseph Connors, she
picked up a paintbrush and started a new hobby. She donated one of her
paintings, an oil landscape of the Laurentian Mountains in Canada, to
Massachusetts General Hospital, where it hangs in a meeting room.
A former member of the Cape Cod Art Association, Mrs. Connors focused
on oil paintings of landscapes. She gained inspiration for many of her
paintings, including a rendering of Nubble Lighthouse at York Harbor,
Maine, from postcards sent by friends and family members, said her
daughter Florence L. Casey of Centerville.
Although Mrs. Connors never claimed to have a secret to living beyond
a century, her daughter said her mother had two simple rituals that
kept her young: She ate peanut butter on toast every morning for
breakfast and spent every afternoon out of the house.
"She always said that everyone should go out for three hours every
day, and every afternoon, she would get in her car and go somewhere,"
her daughter said. "She made a point of going out every day to do
errands, go shopping, find interesting things to do."
Mrs. Connors was born in Winchester, Massachusetts, in 1898, went to
school in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and moved to Medford in 1916. A year
later, she married her husband and they had four children.
During World War II, with her three sons serving in the Army, Mrs.
Connors began volunteering at the Army Information Center as well as
the Red Cross Headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, where it was her
job to help arrange for soldiers killed in action overseas to be
returned to the United States.
Mrs. Connors participated in the Medford Women's Club for more than 70
years and was a former member of the Friends of the Medford Public
Library. She was a charter member of the Phillips Society of
Massachusetts General Hospital and a member of the General Federation
of Women's Clubs and the Bulfinch Society at the hospital.