Antoinette C. (Raskowsky) Flynn

   It is with great sadness that we announce that Antoinette Cecelia Flynn peacefully left us on October 28, 2021. Anne was born on August 23, 1928, to Antoinette and Julius Raskowsky in Union Beach, NJ, the fifth of nine siblings. Anne moved to Keyport as a teenager and lived there her entire life. She attended Cottage Park School in Union Beach, St. Anne’s grammar school in Keansburg and Keyport High School. She loved sharing the stories of her childhood, which though modest, was filled with love and fun times with her siblings, who were her best friends throughout her life. We loved hearing the tales of ice skating on Natco Lake in the winter with her sisters, summertime clam digging on the beaches of Raritan Bay, picking strawberries at Dearborn Farms, and tending the chickens and the garden that her parents grew to help feed the family. 
As a young woman, Anne worked at ATCO Tile in Keyport where she contributed to the war effort by packing supplies for WWII soldiers and also making many lifelong friends. Throughout her life, she and her sisters and friends loved to dance, especially the Polka. As single young women they regularly attended local dances and “crashed weddings” to dance (apparently that was a ‘thing to do’)!  One evening she met a handsome, young Frank X. Flynn at a “Turkey Hop” where he was selling raffle tickets to win a turkey. She didn’t win the turkey, but she won the guy!  They married in 1954 and settled into the home they built in Keyport, raised their two daughters, lived and sometimes danced there, for the rest of their lives.
   

   Anne took so much joy from her work at Aberdeen Shop Rite, where for over 45 years she was a dedicated employee beloved by her colleagues and customers. To this day, many of her customers visited with her, phoned her and considered her their friend! Throughout her life, family and friends were of the highest importance to Anne. In addition to being a devoted mother to her much-loved daughters, Kathleen and Marlene, she was a bonus “mom”, known affectionately as “Chuchie”, to many of her nieces, nephews, and neighbors and was as a huge presence and care giver during the childhood of her nephews, Michael and Louis Raskasky.  Anne was known and loved for her thoughtfulness and kindness towards family, friends, and neighbors. She always found a way to extend a helping hand to those in need and those she cared so much about. In recent years her kindness extended to using her crocheting talents to make lap blankets that provided warmth for so many people in nursing homes and for the homeless. 
Predeceased by her husband of 61 years, Frank, and sisters Mary Raffa, Stella Rosato and Helen Dorl. Anne will be dearly missed by her daughters Kathleen Flynn, and her husband William Robinson of Walnut Creek, CA, Marlene Shea, and husband Kenneth Shea of Middletown, NJ, and grandchildren Scott Robinson and Marissa Shea. She is also survived by her siblings, Louise Mauro of Morganville, Bernice Davenport of Cliffwood Beach, Dolores Matson and husband Ron of Oakhurst, and Albert Louis Raskasky and his wife Karen of Port St. Lucie, FL, devoted niece and nephew Nancy Newman of Keyport and Gerard Raffa of Cliffwood, and numerous nieces, nephews and friends.  
 

    Family and friends are invited to remember Anne at a funeral mass on November 5th, 10:00 am at Our Lady of Fatima Church (formerly St. Joseph’s), Maple Place, Keyport, NJ. Burial will be private at a later date for immediate family. 
   

    Please note, in light of the current Covid situation, and to protect all of our guests and loved ones, we ask that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask to the services. We ask that unvaccinated guests take a Covid test 48 hours prior to attending. Donations in Anne’s memory can be made to her chosen charity, St. Jude’s Hospital.

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