Lisa Nevolene Flinn

Lisa Nevolene Flinn, died July 12, 2022 at age 71. A devoted wife, loving mother, creative writer, avid gardener, inventive cook, committed educator, and generous friend, Lisa truly made a positive difference in her community and the lives of many. She will be sorely missed.

Lisa was born May 4, 1951 in Indianapolis, IN, to Maurice Bradford and Shirley Mae Harrison. She spent her formative years in Indiana and received her Bachelor's in Social Work from Ball State University. Although her vision was already starting to decline due to macular degeneration, Lisa's commitment to doing good works for other people was evident in college. She was instrumental in starting a crisis center at the university as well as a project to install sound warnings at intersections on campus to alert sight-impaired people when it was safe to cross.

After college, Lisa moved to North Carolina where she taught K-12 as a reading specialist. She later focused on adult education. Lisa tutored student athletes at Duke, co-founded a resume-writing service, and in coordination with Durham Tech, established an adult literacy program in Hillsborough, NC - the first such program in Orange County.

After the birth of her third child, Lisa stayed home to care for her children. Once all three were enrolled in elementary school, she embarked on a writing career. Over the next 25 years, Lisa and her writing partner, Barbara Younger, published 20 books through a publishing company associated with the Methodist church. The majority of the early books were Sunday School curriculum and activities for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. These drew on her experience teaching, her skill in cooking and recipe development, and her love for crafts. Lisa and Barbara also collaborated on Christian-themed story books. Barbara described Lisa as smart, insightful, creative, witty, patient, generous, gracious, inventive, and artistic.

Lisa frequently volunteered at Hillsborough Presbyterian Church (HPC). She co-sponsored the Women's Fellowship Group, taught Sunday School, participated on church boards, and served as an elder. She also spearheaded an outreach mission to involve HPC in the Hillsborough Last Friday events. These events provide free ice cream and live music outside the church on the last Friday of each summer month. In the early days of this event, Lisa did almost all the coordination. She wrote grants, arranged promotions, found and booked bands, and even scooped ice cream.

Lisa married William Kelly Flinn on April 1, 1983. (They said they married on April Fool's Day because they were "fools in love"). They built their home in Hillsborough where they raised three children. In a beautiful ceremony held at the HPC on April 1, 2005, Lisa and Bill renewed their marriage vows.

Lisa and Bill had a common interest in gardening. Lisa loved flowers and cultivated many varieties around her home. It was not unusual for her to arrive at a friend's house with a beautiful bouquet of flowers freshly picked from her garden. She and Bill enjoyed growing a large vegetable garden too, and Lisa made sure it was surrounded by beautiful flowers. She also industriously canned fresh vegetables from the garden and generously shared these with friends and family. In recent years, with the onset of Lisa's health challenges (macular degeneration and Alzheimer's Disease), the vegetable garden shrank in size, but Bill lovingly made sure that there were plenty of flowers still filling the vegetable patch for Lisa to enjoy.

Lisa is survived by her children Emily (Lind) Lewis (from Lisa's first marriage to Leonard Lind), Louise Flinn, Harrison Flinn, and grandchildren Claire Lewis and Ellie Lewis. She is predeceased by parents Maurice and Shirley and brother Lan Harrison.

A memorial service will be held on August 4th at 7 p.m. at Hillsborough Presbyterian Church.

Instead of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to one of the following aging support service organizations:

-Solty's Place, an adult day care center in Hillsborough, 105 Meadowlands Drive, Hillsborough, NC 27278 (https://soltysadultday.org/)

-A Positive Approach to Care, a nationwide organization with a mission to enhance life and relationships of those living with brain change. (https://teepasnow.com/about/support-pac/#)