Manuel -- “Manny” or “Lu Lu” as he was known to many of his friends and family -- was born in New Bedford on June 17, 1926. As a young boy, he moved to Yarmouth Road in Hyannis with his mother and two sisters, where the family, along with the Britos, established an unofficial family compound, living in adjacent homes on Yarmouth Road near the Barnstable-Yarmouth town line.
While attending elementary school, the Hyannis Patriot published a list of students with perfect attendance records on June 2, 1938. Manuel was among those listed – an early indication of the consistency and reliability that would characterize the rest of his life.
A 1944 graduate of Barnstable High School, where Manuel was a stand-out football and basketball player, he was also part of a group of male students who received military training by a cadet at Mass Maritime Academy. Upon graduating, Manuel enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served stateside during World War II, stationed at the Alameda Navy Base in California from 1944 to 1946. It was in Alameda where he met his future wife, Eugenia Costa. After they married in 1951, they settled on Yarmouth Road where they raised their four children.
In 1948, Manuel began taking G.I. flight courses at the Barnstable Municipal Airport, where he earned his pilot’s license. For a decade, he owned and ran Modern Cleaning Service in Hyannis. When he sold the business, he went to work for Cape Cod Community College in 1979, where he oversaw the Building, Grounds and Maintenance Department. In June of 1988, the college honored him along with 9 other employees with a Distinguished Service Award before he retired in 1991. After he retired, Manuel continued to work part-time for the college at the school’s Hyannis campus until August of 2008. Always a protector, he also worked part-time as a security guard for Safe Harbor, a shelter for women.
Manuel was a life-long pillar in a large extended family and a surrogate father to many outside the family. A loyal friend who loved to laugh and joke with anyone he came across, he was a paragon of practicality. And, whether on the job or at home, Manuel’s work ethic was grounded in his unwavering commitment to promptness and reliability – a man who lived by the words, “do the best you can.”
Manuel is predeceased by his parents John and Candia Gonsalves, his longtime wife Eugenia (Costa) Gonsalves; and an older sister, who passed away earlier this year in the Cape Verdean Islands at the age of 101. He is survived by his sisters, Louisa Pena and Grace Tavares, both of Hyannis; his four children, Manuela (Anita) Gonsalves of North Carolina, Janine Smith of Virginia, Antoinette “Cookie” Williamson of Missouri, and Anthony Gonsalves of Mashpee; 13 grandchildren; 5 great-grandchildren; two great-great grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
Visiting hours will be held 10 to 11 a.m., Monday, November 11, 2019 followed by a funeral service at 11 a.m. at Doane Beal & Ames Funeral Home, 160 W. Main St., Hyannis, Ma. Burial with military honors will follow at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery, Pine St., Centerville, MA. For online condolences visit www.doanebealameshyannis.com
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