Oldsmar loses quiet advocate

OLDSMAR -- Alice Ellen Manny did not seek attention. Yet most longtime Oldsmar residents knew her anyway.

Mrs. Manny, who died Saturday (Sept. 21, 2002) at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, was a former city clerk and City Council member in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But most people knew her from her myriad other volunteer activities. Her voice in the church choir. Her involvement with the Top of the Bay Garden Club. And membership in the Cultural Arts Foundation.

"She was a quiet person, but she'd get the work done on anything she'd do," said longtime friend Bette Rae Maltinos, assistant food and beverage manager at Tampa Bay Downs. "She's going to be missed greatly by a lot of people."

Mrs. Manny, 70, was rediagnosed with cancer in August of last year. Though sick, Alice Manny and her husband, Edward, a former Oldsmar City Council member and vice mayor, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last October on a cruise with friends. And they attended two family reunions.

"She was a great lady," Manny said Monday. "I was fortunate to have 51 years with her."

Mrs. Manny's earlier political life was born of a love for the city of Oldsmar and what it was doing, Manny said. At the time, he said, few women served in politics and "the town wasn't quite ready for it yet." She served with a quiet, "down-home intelligence," he said.

After two years on the council, ending in 1971, Mrs. Manny made an unsuccessful bid to be mayor.

She retired two years ago from Land Ho of Tampa Bay, a real estate company. She was active at her church, Community United Methodist Church, where she was past president of the church's Wesley Girls-Community UMC. She formerly served as chair of the church's missions committee, sang in the choir and volunteered at the Mustard Seed Thrift Store, to help raise money for the church. She also was a member and former vice president of Top of the Bay Garden Club.

"She was somewhat of a private lady," Oldsmar Mayor Jerry Beverland said. "But she was a lady that everyone in town loved because she was always there when someone needed her."

"She didn't go out of her way to be recognized," Beverland said. "She didn't blow her own horn. But there are a lot of tributes that could be blown for her."

Mrs. Manny was born in Sherman, Ill., and came here in 1964 from Gurnee, Ill. In addition to her husband, she is survived by two sons, Bruce of Tampa, and Floyd of Jacksonville; a brother, Thomas W. Shirley, Prospect Heights, Ill.; a cousin, Shirley Heller, Carlinville, Ill.; and three grandchildren.

Visitation will be held today from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Holloway Funeral Home, Oldsmar. Funeral services will be 1 p.m. Wednesday at Community United Methodist Church, Oldsmar.

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