First Posted: 3/23/2015
LIMA — When the old man died in 1954 his dog, Lady, wound up in the Allen County animal shelter where she faithfully awaited her master’s return.
“Only in a fresh environment, in a home where she will receive kindly consideration and love will the spirit of her beloved master return to comfort her,” Carmen Penn Flinn wrote in a March 16, 1954, letter in The Lima News. “Although Joe Paoli’s mortal book is closed, with only pleasant memories remaining for his friends, they know he will still be visiting with his dog, Lady, from the other side of the curtain.”
A tireless voice on behalf of animals, Flinn eventually would let them speak for themselves. Flinn, though, was much more than an animal advocate. In her youth, she led an orchestra accompanying vaudeville acts and set the tune for silent movies in several Lima theaters. For more than four decades it seemed as if anyone singing at almost any event was accompanied on piano by Carmen Penn Flinn.
Oh, and she wrote poetry, which she described as her first love.
Carmen Penn was born Dec. 3, 1886, in Carmargo, Illinois, a descendant of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. In August 1907, she married Benjamin L. Flinn, a native of Jay County, Indiana. Flinn was a car salesman and avid golfer who dropped dead near the 10th green at Lost Creek Country Club in 1938.
The Flinns moved to Lima early in the 20th century and Carmen, a piano player, found work in theaters. A 1916 city directory lists Flinn as musical director at the Orpheum Theater, which was located in the 100 block of West Market Street. “I started the first vaudeville orchestra ever in town at the old Orpheum Theater,” she recalled in a Nov. 16, 1958, article in The Lima News.
“She said she was 18 years old when she started playing at the Orpheum,” the News wrote, “and led the accompaniment for the acts from her piano for about 15 years. During that stint she recalled playing for Will Rogers, Gallagher and Shean, Belle Baker and Eva Tanguay, all of whom appeared in Lima.”
She also played for W.C. Fields and Will Rogers, Flinn told the paper, as well as jugglers, animal acts, wire walkers, acrobats and contortionists. “We had the best in the business here in Lima.”
In the days of silent movies, Flinn’s piano playing provided the soundtrack for movies at Lima’s Lyric, Sigma, Faurot and Ohio theaters. A Nov. 23, 1925, ad for the showing of “The Merry Widow” at the Sigma notes the orchestra is “personally directed by Mrs. Ben Flinn.”
When not working with the likes of Will Rogers or W.C. Fields, Flinn was providing piano accompaniment for local singers at meetings of the Rotary Club, or the Business and Professional Woman’s Club, or the Shakespeare Club. Flinn backed the soprano Mrs. Mackintosh at an August 1922 Rotary Club luncheon and traveled with Mrs. Fred W. Schilling in May 1930 for a performance on Fort Wayne’s WOWO radio. In October 1932, Flinn accompanied singers performing for a meeting of the Pythian Sisters.
On June 28, 1938, the News reported the death of Flinn’s 55-year-old husband. The same edition carried a story noting that a dance review at South High School at which Flinn was to play piano had been postponed. “True to the tradition of the theatre which she followed her entire life, however, Mrs. Flinn will see that the ‘show goes on’ by playing Thursday and Friday evening. Services for her husband will be held Wednesday.”
Flinn saw to that the show went on well into the 1960s, continuing to provide accompaniment for singers at local events and playing at meetings of service clubs as well as performing with the Hoffman Trio and later with Roger Downing’s Three Kings and a Queen.
Flinn played piano for more than 30 years at Sertoma Club luncheons and frequently for Lions Club minstrel shows.
Although busy with her musical career, Flinn found time for another pursuit, evidence of which surfaced in a March 1, 1936, newspaper article. “Mrs. Ben Flinn, 127 N. Pierce St., is the author of a short poem, ‘To Slain Elms,’ which appeared in the January issue of the magazine ‘American Forests’ …,” the News reported. “The poem is used in connection with an article ‘Save the Elms.’ Mrs. Flinn said the poem was inspired by two trees that formerly stood at the corner of High and Pierce streets.”
In 1965, Flinn collected her poetry into a 76-page book, “When a Heart Is Young.” On Oct. 24, 1965, Hope Strong of the News wrote, “The lyrical results express the soft-spoken Lima resident’s views on nature, people, animals, love, friendship and philosophy.”
Flinn’s views on animals often appeared in the News and Lima Citizen. As early as 1938, Flinn, a member of the Allen County Animal Protection Association, was penning letters to the editor about the treatment of animals. In an April 21, 1938, letter to the News, Flinn and her husband thanked the newspaper for “the few lines in behalf of that poor puppy so cruelly tortured by that fiend in the form of a boy …” The letter goes on to describe the boy as an “11-year-old killer.”
During the 1950s, Flinn wrote imaginative articles on behalf of the county animal shelter, and the animals sheltered there. “Being a black and white mixture he naturally came by the name Spotty,” she wrote Aug. 28, 1956, in the News. “He is a fence-jumper. Not a low fence-jumper but a very high fence jumper. If you have ever seen the fences at the Animal Shelter you know that they are not exactly pony hurdles.”
In another News article, this one on Dec. 10, 1956, she wrote, “’Big Red’ they called him. From the very first minute of his arrival at the shelter everyone knew he was a character. In fact, from the moment he strolled up, wagging a friendly ‘hello’ to Harold Smith’s yard man, undeniable characteristics were recognized.”
In 1959, Flinn let the animals — in the form of her cat Blinks — tell their own story. “’Gone with the Witch,’ a lively and imaginative story of one year in a cat’s life as seen by the cat, will be published officially on Tuesday by Vantage Press, Inc., of New York City,” the Citizen reported Jan. 25, 1959.
Flinn served as Ohio chairman for National Cat Week in 1958. She was named the LaSertoma Club’s “Woman of the Year” in 1963. Flinn died Jan. 14, 1970, and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
