Thomas Alward Flanagan Jr.

He was born in Houston, Texas on December 30, 1924. He attended parochial schools there, and enrolled at The Rice Institute (now Rice University) in the fall of 1942 as an engineering major. He also enlisted in the NROTC as a cadet. Upon graduation in 1945, he joined the US Navy and was assigned to a cruiser, the USS Huntington.

He returned to civilian life in Houston where he was employed in the engineering field. Unhappy with engineering employment, he returned to college at Texas University (now the University of Texas), where he earned a Masters degree in Statistics in 1950.

His first post graduate job was with a Houston bank, the National Bank of Commerce, in their management training program. Then in 1950, he married Sarah Nabors, whom he had met when they were both students at Rice.

Tom Flanagan enlisted in the Korean War, spent two more years with the US Navy, then was discharged with the rank of Lieutenant.

In 1957 Tom Flanagan sought a charter for a new bank in Lake Charles and this was granted in early 1958. Doors for the new bank were opened on January 2, 1959 and the bank would go on to become a very large one with $200 million in assets and $100 million in deposits until its sale in 1993. He was its only CEO and the bank suffered only one loss in all those years.

In 1971, The Federal Reserve branch bank of New Orleans appointed Flanagan to a 2 year term as a Director. Later, he was also active in the successful passage of the One Bank Holding Company Act in Louisiana.

Locally, Flanagan held numerous volunteer posts: President of the Lake Charles Chamber of Commerce in 1973, and was the recipient of their Citizen of the Year award in 1975; he was Campaign Chairman of the United Way Campaign in 1966, and was President of that organization in 1984 and 1985; he served on the Executive Board for Lake Charles Memorial Hospital for 16 years; he was a founding board member of the Louisiana Chapter of the Nature Conservancy serving as its Chairman for three years.

He was President of the Lake Charles Country Club twice, in 1962 and 1972. He was president of the Louisiana State Golf Association in 1966. In 1988 he would go on to become a director for the Southern Seniors Golf Association serving as its chairman for five years beginning in 1993. Tom and his wife were longtime members of NALG, the National Association of Left-Handed Golfers.

In 2010, Tom Flanagan chartered a second bank (this one under state laws) called simply Lakeside Bank.

He is pre-deceased by both his parents, Thomas Alward Flanagan, Sr and Anna May Finney; his sister, Lou Ann (Flanagan) Davis; and his wife of almost 62 years, Sarah Nabors. He is also survived by his five children: Dan Allen Flanagan and his wife, Debbie (Austin); David Thomas Flanagan and his wife, Carol (Lake Charles); Michael Dean Flanagan and his partner Jeannie (Houston); Dinah Bertrand and her husband, Arthur (Houston); and Sam Christopher Flanagan (Hutto, TX); he is also survived by four grand-children, Judith Ann Flanagan and her husband, Matthew McInerney (of London, UK), Thomas David Flanagan (Austin), Austin Bertrand and his wife Jen Gallo (Dallas), and Evan Bertrand and his wife Chelsea (Dallas); he is survived by one great-granddaughter, Madeleine Bertrand (Dallas).

In keeping with his wishes, he has requested that he be cremated, and there will be no funeral or memorial service. Friends are requested to leave a donation to their own favorite charity. Those wishing to leave final thoughts may do so at www.hixsonfuneralhomes.com.