Florence Sunderman “Flip” Dane, 95, of Lyme, CT died suddenly but peacefully at her home Monday, Oct. 27.
Born Oct. 15, 1919, in Newark, she was raised in Westchester County, NY, and spent summers in Indiana with her mother’s family as a child. Flip attended the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI, for four years, graduating in 1941. At the time, although RISD required academic as well as arts classes, it did not grant degrees. But she was gratified when, a half-century later, RISD invited her and many of her contemporaries to the campus to confer bachelor of arts degrees on them retroactively.
Flip married Earle B. Dane, Jr., a Marine Corps veteran of World War II who was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, in Larchmont, NY in 1946. They raised their two children, Peter and Sarah, primarily in Wilton, where they lived from 1952 to 1978. They moved to Old Lyme in 1978 and to Lyme in 2004. They had been married for nearly 62 year when Earle died in 2008.
Primarily a housewife during the years of raising her children, Flip was also a volunteer for the public libraries in Wilton and Old Lyme, and for the Lyme Art Association and the Nearly New in Old Lyme. She was also a skilled watercolor artist throughout most of her adult life, painting primarily landscapes, including scenes she had encountered in travels to China, the British Isles, and elsewhere in the world. She displayed her paintings in local galleries and shows, and from time to time painted “portraits” of houses on commission.
Flip was known for her feisty approach to life, her active and sometimes bawdy sense of humor, and her ability capsulize a situation or person succinctly and a bit humorously, often drawing a hearty laugh.
In addition to her son Peter of Colchester, CT and daughter Sarah Dane-Brown of Lyme, CT, Flip is survived by two grandchildren, Evan Brown and Emily Brown, both of California, her sister-in-law Ruth Dane of East Greenwich, RI, and eight nieces and nephews.
A memorial service honoring Flip Dane’s life will be conducted at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, 82 Shore Road, Old Lyme at 1 p.m. on Sunday, November 9, with a short burial service to follow at the Duck River Cemetery on McCurdy Road and a gathering to remember Flip’s life at The Hideaway on 19 Halls Road in Old Lyme.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to St. Ann’s or to the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library, 2 Library Lane, Old Lyme, CT 06371.