Iris Fox Flournoy, 87, died peacefully, surrounded by family on January 16, at Stonebridge in Skillman, New Jersey.


Mrs. Flournoy was born Iris Lee Fox in East Orange, NJ on October 31, 1922 and grew up in Essex Fells, NJ. She graduated from the Kimberley School in Montclair, NJ and Bradford Junior College in Haverhill, Mass. During World War II she drove an ambulance in New York City as part of her volunteer work as a Gray Lady.


On January 8, 1949, she married Richard C. Flournoy, a World War II B-17 pilot, who joined Trans World Airlines after the war. They lived in Metuchen, Asbury, and Pittstown, New Jersey, before moving to Skillman in 1963, and in 1969 to Princeton, to be closer to Stuart County Day School where their five daughters were students. Mrs. Flournoy was a devoted wife and mother. She was a woman of many skills and undaunted when her husband's flight schedule or training required him to be away for a week or ten days, leaving her in rural Hunterdon County alone with the five girls.


During the years that she drove her daughters from Pittstown to Princeton for school, Mrs. Flournoy worked for the Gallup Organization, and later as a social and personal secretary for several Princeton neighbors, including Dorothea Greenbaum, the sculptor, and Mary Marquand Hochschild. Mrs. Flournoy was an avid reader and traveled throughout Europe and North America, and in China, taking advantage of the travel privileges afforded by Mr. Flournoy's work for TWA. Long before it was common, she arranged house-sitting opportunities and rentals in Europe, allowing the family to enjoy extended stays in England, France, Ireland, and Germany.


She was known for her insight, athleticism, organization, quick wit, and love of all things French. She had a keen inquiring mind and was fond of solving mysteries, whether in detective fiction, in the news, or in life around her. She was an accomplished seamstress and a gifted tennis player, continuing to play tennis into her late seventies. Bridge was an abiding passion and her bridge groups, in which she played with a competitive spirit, provided her countless hours of pleasure.

Although she would never have described herself as such, Mrs. Flournoy was a natural leader and was often called on to fill leadership roles in her many volunteer activities. She served on the Board of Trustees of The Nassau Club and was elected Secretary, the first woman to hold an office there. She served as a trustee for the Friends of the Princeton Public Library. She volunteered for the Princeton Hospital Auxiliary and served as co-chair of the Hospital Fete. She was also an active volunteer and Board Member of the Princeton Tennis Program. She was a Sustaining Member of the Junior League of Greater Princeton, a longtime member and communicant of the Aquinas Institute and involved with its Crisis Ministry, on the Board of Catholic Charities, a volunteer at the Drumthwacket Gift Shop, and a member of the Present Day Club and the Contemporary Garden Club.


She is survived by four daughters, Lee Flournoy of Dalton, Mass., Anne Flournoy of New York, NY, Mary Flournoy of Stockbridge, Mass., and Alyson Flournoy of Gainesville, Florida, as well as by six grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Richard, who died in 1992, a son John who died shortly after birth, and her daughter Victoria Flournoy McCarthy who died in 2007.


The family will celebrate a private funeral Mass, and Mrs. Flournoy will be buried along with her husband in East Winthrop, Maine, where her family has visited since 1935. Gifts in her memory may be made to the Lies, Light, McCarthy Visiting Writers Program at Stuart Country Day School.