Florence Harris Summered at Barnard's Inn Farm

Florence (Flipper) Harris died peacefully at her home in Gladwyne, Pa. on Wednesday June 15. She was 87 years old.

She was born Florence Butcher on Sept. 28, 1917. Her parents were Margaret Keen Butcher and Howard Butcher Jr. of Ardmore, Pa. and West Tisbury. Her parents owned Barnard's Inn Farm in West Tisbury, where she spent her summers growing up. The property is now the Polly Hill Arboretum, named for her sister, Polly Hill, whose interest in horticulture led her to establish an arboretum on the property.

Flipper later bought a house in Vineyard Haven, and the Quansoo Farm in Chilmark, now operated by Sheriff's Meadow Foundation.

Flipper attended the Phoebe Anna Thorne School in Bryn Mawr, then the Agnes Irwin School. She was graduated from Vassar College in 1939. She attended graduate school at Claremont College in California, and while a student there drove a bus for Greyhound. She went on to teach school in the California public school system. She returned to Ardmore in 1945 and taught at the Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia.

She married George B. Harris Jr. on May 28, 1948 in the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. The newlyweds built a house in Gladwyne and lived there for the rest of her life.

She had many interests and hobbies. She was an ice dancer and a member of the Philadelphia skating club and humane society in Ardmore since 1938. She continued to skate until she was 80. She attended the Antonelli School of Photography in Philadelphia, and studied sculpture for many years with Evangelos Frudakis in Philadelphia. She was a certified scuba diver and licensed airplane pilot. She was active in the Gladwyne Library League, and was a Girl Scout leader of troop 1129 in Gladwyne. She and her husband traveled extensively throughout their marriage, and she supported many charities. She had a great interest in dowsing.

She is survived by her husband, George B. Harris Jr., and her two daughters, Starr Harris Simpson of Haverford, Pa., and Lea Harris Mitman of Haines, Alas., and two grandchildren, George B. Simpson and Mary Lea Simpson. A sister, Polly Hill, and a brother, W.W. Keen Butcher, also survive her.

A memorial service will be held at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pa. on Saturday August 13, at 11 am. The family requests no flowers.