After 93 years of enriching the lives of everyone she touched, Florence Douglas McFarlane finished her life journey with us on April 26, 2026. Florence was a daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin and friend who always found time to listen deeply to you, share her wise counsel, and demonstrate her compassionate nature.

Beyond that, she was a pioneer in her field as a physician for 67 years, choosing psychiatry with a subspecialty in neurology and becoming board certified in both general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. She felt that her calling was to serve the marginalized and underserved populations including the indigent, minorities, children and women and did so throughout her career. During her career, she worked at Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital and Drew Postgraduate Medical School in Los Angeles. Florence helped establish the first Child and Adolescent Division for training future psychiatrists to specialize in this area. Florence later worked at the Long Beach, CA VA Hospital working with veterans who experienced trauma. Through all this, Florence maintained her private psychiatry practice in Torrance, CA for 45 years where she focused on seeing young children and teenage patients.

Florence was born on March 26, 1933 in New York City, NY as the first child of Miriam Hines Douglas and Aaron Douglas, both emigrants from Jamaica. As the Great Depression severely impacted life in the United States, she went to live in Jamaica during her earliest years, returning to New York when she was 10 years old. She went to Hunter College in New York and was accepted into medical school at Howard University in Washington D.C, one of seven women in a first year class of 128 students. Upon graduating from medical school in 1959, she accepted an internship and residency program at Los Angeles County General Hospital and made the move 3000 miles away to California.

On June 3, 1962 Florence married Frank McFarlane in Los Angeles, California which they both made their home for the rest of their lives. She first met Frank when they were both 16 years old and he had recently emigrated from Jamaica to the U.S. They remained good friends over the intervening years as their parents were also close.

Always an avid gardener, Florence had a knack for making almost anything grow in her California garden from sugar cane and guavas, to persimmons, figs and mangos. She read copiously and loved cooking. After retirement she took up new interests including writing, painting, learning new languages and spending time with all eight of her grandchildren.

Florence was married to Frank for 38 years until he passed away on July 23, 2000. Together they had three daughters, Valerie Ann Florence, Angela Dianna, and Alychandra Mignon. Florence is survived by her three children and grandchildren, respectively Amelia, Theo and Brianna (son-in-law Ed Smyth), Andrew, Anthony and Athena (son-in-law John Fitzgerald), and Sophia and Christian (son-on-law Steve Quinn). Florence also leaves behind many extended family members who she loved as well.