GEORGE D. FLANIGAN; WAS PITCHER, SHOESHINE MAN.(News)(Obituary\George D. Flanigan )(Obituary)

George D. Flanigan, whose earnings as a shoeshine man helped to put his son through medical school, died Friday (Dec. 9, 1994) of cancer at Deaconess Hospital. He was 88 and had lived in St. Louis for more than 60 years.

For three decades, until the late 1970s, Mr. Flanigan was an institution at Sam Golub's Shoe Repair, at the corner of 10th and Olive streets.

"His clientele varied from the elite to the man in the street," said his son, Dr. George D. Flanigan Jr. of Ladue. "Judges and lawyers sought him out. He lived life with gusto. He never met a stranger."

Mr. Flanigan was born in Bonham, Texas. As a young man, he signed on as a left-handed …