Obituary: Frank Martin Flanagan

Frank Martin Flanagan
06/07/1951 – 02/11/2025

 

 

Frank Martin Flanagan of Baton Rouge died February 11, at the age of 73, after an extraordinary and creative life.

Martin was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1951, and adopted soon after by David and Bertha of Leland, Mississippi. Martin was molded by his childhood on a Delta farm, where a love of the blues took root before he discovered his love of design at LA Tech. It was there that he met his wife of 44 years, Gay Hardy of Alexandria.

Those two! Martin and Gay began their married life in Baton Rouge, starting a family, and then building a successful business, Xdesign. Throughout his life, Martin was enamored by art, architecture, music and storytelling. He considered it a joy, not a job, to work in design, especially with the many talented people he learned from and the many many talented designers and artists he taught and inspired.

Martin and Xdesign won more than a few awards. He reveled in the bounty of collaborating with his colleagues and friends over the years. Martin took great pleasure in sharing his design knowledge with those in need of help after a slow retirement.

Martin then spent time writing songs and singing his stories. He performed in a few legendary dives around Baton Rouge and released an album in 2012, Beneath These Strings. He had one song top the Internet country music chart, and his song “Screen Door” reached No. 1 on Radio Free Texas and won the Great American Song Contest.

Martin celebrated Gay’s life in 2017 and found new parts of old stories to tell. There were epic fi shing adventures, harrowing helicopter landings, and all sorts of unusual situations with wild animals. A lot more getting into trouble than you could imagine – or so we were told.

He is survived by his children, Jackson Flanagan Kerby and Silas Flanagan, and his sister, Janiece Morris (Larry). Martin loved his children and grandchildren (who he bragged about endlessly) more than anything and reveled in the time he was able to spend with them in his final years.

His last request was a simple one: In lieu of flowers, Martin asks only that you…take a kid fishin’.