Genevieve Flanagan, 80, director of family firm

The former Notre Dame Academy, on the west side of Rittenhouse Square, was not bursting at the seams when Genevieve Phillips graduated in 1951.

The largest of its four classes had only 18 students, Sylvia Luongo, a classmate and basketball teammate, recalled in a phone interview.

Even at 5-foot-5, Genevieve Phillips "was the only real athlete in her class," Luongo said.

"She was captain of the basketball team, probably for four years," Luongo said.

The other players, Luongo said, "were worrying about our fingernails breaking and our hair getting sweaty and not looking great."

On Saturday, Oct. 12, Genevieve Phillips Flanagan, 80, died of heart failure at her home in Medford Lakes.

In the decades since her ball-playing days, she had been in command, too, of the family firm.

Since 1959, she and her husband had opened three gasoline and service stations and a truck repair shop, all in South Jersey.

"She was the brains of the operation," her daughter, Deborah Smith, said in a phone interview.

Born in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, she was president of her senior class at Notre Dame Academy and a teenage rower on the Schuylkill for a women's team based on Boathouse Row.

"Very aggressive," Luongo said.

Basketball shaped her life.

"That's how my dad met her," Smith said. "He was watching her play basketball," and asked her out.

After working as a secretary for a Philadelphia law firm, she married and moved to Medford Lakes.

"They opened their first business in 1959 - Flanagan's Mobil, a gas and service station," in Medford, Smith said.

"They had that for 54 years. We just shut that down. . . .

"They opened their second station in 1976, in Mount Laurel - Ramblewood Automotive," a gasoline and service station that the family still runs.

"The third one they opened in 1982 - Flanagan & Sons in Moorestown," a gas and service operation, sold in 2009.

"The fourth place opened in 1987 - Flanagan's Auto & Truck Repair in Lumberton," still operating, Smith said.

"She was the bookkeeper for all these," she said, and held the title of director of the family firm.

Sports still brightened her after-work hours.

"She coached and refereed for the Medford Lakes Athletic Association, its girls' teams," Smith said.

With a friend, "she had started the program in the '60s," and, Smith said, "she refereed basketball games into the 1980s."

She was a Cub Scout leader in the 1960s.

And, Smith said, each August when Medford Lakes has a canoe carnival with a dozen competing teams, she often helped build a few.

"My mother was Santa Claus every day," Smith said.

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Flanagan is survived by a brother and two grandchildren. Her husband, John H., died in 2012, a year to the day earlier than Mrs. Flanagan. She was predeceased by their son, John T.

A viewing was set from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20, at the Bradley Funeral Home, Route 73 and Evesham Road, Marlton. A Funeral Mass is to be at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 21, at St. Francis Xavier Church, 23d and Green Sts., Philadelphia, with interment in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham.

Donations may be made to the Medford Lakes Colony, Vaughn Hall Restoration Fund, 79 Tecumseh Trail, Medford Lakes, N.J. 08055.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.bradleyfuneralhome-marlton.com.