Florence Lamborn Peters (“Pete”) passed away peacefully in her sleep at Acorn Glen Assisted Living in Princeton, N.J., on July 19, 2020. She had just turned 92 in June.
Pete was born June 28, 1928, in Montclair, N.J., and was the second child of John Warren Lamborn and Anna Elizabeth Flynn. Pete graduated from the Convent of the Sacred Heart Maplehurst (now Greenwich), and from Rosemont College in 1949 with a degree in English. Upon graduation, Pete returned home to Montclair, where she worked in a photography studio.
Pete married Landon Peters on Feb. 2, 1952, and they were married for 53 years, until Landon’s death in 2005. After their marriage, they moved to San Antonio, Texas, where Landon served in the Air Force during the Korean conflict, and where their eldest child, Eric, was born. They truly enjoyed their adventures in San Antonio, far from their families, and made many lifelong friends, returning to visit them many times over the years.
They returned to Princeton so Landon could finish his studies at Princeton University, where he graduated in 1956. Pete and Landon remained in Princeton for the rest of their lives, where their sons Michael, John, David, and Christopher were born. Pete’s younger first cousin, Elinore Flynn, came to live with them in 1957, after her parents had died.
Her own mother’s lessons of community service led Pete to enjoy a long career as a volunteer in Princeton community organizations. At various times, she held leadership roles in the YWCA, Friends of Princeton University Art Museum, McCarter Theatre, Medical Center Auxiliary, the United Way of Princeton, the Historical Society of Princeton and the Garden Club of Princeton. In 1990, the United Way of Princeton awarded her the Gerard Lambert Award, its annual award recognizing volunteer leadership in the Princeton community. The Garden Club of America awarded her its Zone IV Creative Leadership Award and the GCA Medal of Merit. Pete was also a founding member of Kieve Effective Education in Damariscotta, Maine, which funds Camp Kieve and Wavus Camp for Girls, which several of her sons and granddaughters attended, along with many Princeton residents. While Pete held a firm belief that those who have been blessed with good fortune have a responsibility to contribute to their communities and to those less fortunate, she also greatly valued the enduring, cross-generational friendships that were a part of all of her community activities.
Pete was a wonderful, self-taught cook, who could pull off a dinner party for 12 with ease, well into her 80s. A lover of flowers of all kinds (peonies being her favorite), her perfect table was always adorned with her very special floral arrangements, often from her garden, or Vineyard plants. She was a member of Prettybrook Tennis Club, the Nassau Club, and Springdale Golf Club.
Pete had deep ties to Martha’s Vineyard. Her maternal grandfather was George D. Flynn Sr., who first came to Edgartown in the 1890s and purchased Pohogonot Farm in Edgartown in 1910, which is still owned by his descendants. Her paternal grandfather was Arthur H. Lamborn, who had a summer home at Juniper Place in Vineyard Haven, and whose six children all summered in Vineyard Haven in the early 1900s. Pete came to stay at Pohogonot Farm or in Edgartown every summer as a child. Her parents later had a summer home at Quitsa in the 1950s and 1960s.
While Pete and Landon were both raised in Montclair, they met in Edgartown as summer residents when teenagers. Pete and Landon began to spend every summer at the Cabin at Pohogonot in 1956. They purchased Short Point in Edgartown, across Job’s Neck Pond from Pohogonot, from her Uncle George D. Flynn Jr. in 1977, and built their summer home there in 1989, which they designed themselves. Pete was a member of the Edgartown Yacht Club and the Vineyard Golf Club. She enjoyed sailing and tennis, helping to restore the family tennis court at Pohogonot.
Pete’s avid interest in the flora and fauna of the Pohogonot region, the preservation of Pohogonot Farm, and her extended Flynn family and their history, was instilled by her grandmother, Elizabeth D. Flynn, with whom she would often stay in the Big House at Pohogonot when she was young. Her uncle, George D. Flynn Jr., called her the “archivist.” She was the oldest surviving grandchild of George D. Flynn and Elizabeth D. Flynn.
Pete was predeceased by her husband Landon, her son Michael, her sisters Patricia Coward Kolbe and Elizabeth Lamborn, her brothers John W. Lamborn Jr., and George D.F. Lamborn, and her daughter-in-law Sarah Gelotte Peters. She is survived by her sons, Eric and his wife, Eileen Murphy, and John, of Vineyard Haven, David, of Princeton, and Christopher and his wife Kathryn, of Dallas, Texas; her seven grandchildren, Nathaniel Peters, Molly Peters, Emily Peters, Caroline Peters, Lorna Peters, Charles Landon Peters, and Kathryn Peters; and her great-grandson, John Peters.
A memorial service in Princeton will be held, and burial will be at Edgartown, both at a future date.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Historical Society of Princeton, 354 Quaker Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, or the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, 151 Lagoon Pond Road, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.
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