Life-long friend Margaret Robins, of Queenstown, described Mrs Flint, nee Haslemore, as a ''very, very giving girl''.
Mrs Robins said she and Mrs Flint both grew up in the Riverton area and went to primary school together.
They attended high school together in Invercargill and then began training as florists together at HS Youngs, along with Jean Britton.
''The three of us ... then socialised and worked [together].
''Then we all married and we all had children and moved away and did our various bits and pieces,'' Mrs Robins said.
Mrs Flint - a talented pianist - married Archie, also a musician, in Riverton 53 years ago.
The couple met while living at the same boarding house in Invercargill.
They both played in the Merrymakers Band, which performed about 70 times a year at country pubs, balls and cabarets all over Southland, and were members of a pipe band.
During that time the couple first met Barry Bain, now of Wanaka, who was a member of the Garrison's Band and its Bavarian band, dubbed the Idleburgers, which also travelled around Southland doing gigs to raise money for the main band to compete in contests.
Mr and Mrs Flint, who had two sons, Peter and David, moved to Winton and later Dunedin where they spent five and a-half years, before moving to Timaru for nine years.
In 1993 they decided to moved permanently to Arrowtown, where they'd bought a holiday home for 800 in 1967.
Mrs Flint worked as the pianist on TSS Earnslaw for about five years and also met up with Mrs Robins and Mrs Britton again when all three worked at The Flower Barn, at Lower Shotover.
Mr Bain and his wife, Ann, were already living in Arrowtown - he had been one of the foundation members of the Arrow Miner's Band in 1985.
After the Flints shifted to the area it was not long before the couple also joined the band, Mrs Flint on piano or piano-accordion and Mr Flint on banjo.
Mr Flint said in 2000 the couple moved into a home they built from recycled timber in the village, which they operated as a bed and breakfast for about 10 years.
The avid gardener was also a long-serving member of the Lakes District Museum board.
''She was a wonderful mother and, no doubt about it, a wonderful wife,'' Mr Flint said.
She is survived by Mr Flint, her sons and grandchildren Maia, Eve and Marshall.
