Thomas Flannagan dies. He was an artist, a columnist . . . but most of all, his passion was golf

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- He was happiest on the links or behind an easel.

Thomas R. Flannagan, 93, who devoted more than five decades to informing and entertaining readers as the golf columnist and editorial cartoonist for the Advance/SILive.com, died Sunday in the Verrazano Nursing Center, Tompkinsville, of complications from dementia.

A lifelong Staten Islander, Mr. Flannagan was also a devoted husband and father.

“He was a good man with good values that he instilled in us,” said his eldest daughter, Kim Flannagan. “He brought us up right and took good care of us as a family.”

Born on March 31, 1932, Mr. Flannagan was raised in Sunnyside with his two sisters. His father, Thomas J. Flannagan, was a city bus driver. His mother, the former Helen Quinlan, was a homemaker.

After graduating