Thomas Manning; former DA in W. Mass. ran for Congress

THOMAS R. MANNING

In 1974, Thomas Richard Manning painted an old Pontiac bright yellow, loaded up his family, and rolled through the Berkshires, campaigning for Congress in the "Manning Mobile" against Republican incumbent Silvio Conte.

Manning was district attorney for Berkshire and Hamden counties then. But he gave up the job to run against the congressman, who hadn't faced a Democratic challenger in a dozen years.

"My dad was so honest. He had such integrity. He voluntarily gave up his DA's job because he didn't want anyone to think there was some conflict of interest," said Mary Ellen Manning of Wellfleet, who was 14 when she and her siblings collected 3,000 signatures in one weekend to get her father on the ballot.

Mr. Manning, who was 74 when he died of heart failure Sunday at the VA Medical Center in West Roxbury, lost to Conte, who served 32 years in Congress, until his death in 1991.

"I think sometimes he felt he let us down because of the congressional thing. But we got through it. He was rich because he had all of us, and he taught us to be good people like he was," Mary Ellen Manning said.

Mr. Manning went on to work as special attorney for the city of Pittsfield. He moved to West Roxbury in 1986 and began representing veterans who took part in medical studies at the VA hospital.

He was a member of the VA Boston Health Care System's Institutional Review Board and recently received a letter from President Bush recognizing his volunteer work. "He was very proud of that letter," said son John P. Manning of Los Angeles. "But he was most proud of my mother. Raising six children is never easy, and they did a wonderful job."

Mr. Manning grew up in the Mission Hill section of Roxbury. He was the son of Boston Fire Lieutenant John Patrick Manning and Catherine (Tapp), a special-education teacher.

He graduated from Mission High School in 1950 and was an altar boy at Mission Church.

Mr. Manning took his first job at age 12, sweeping floors at what later became Brigham and Women's Hospital. He told his children he also worked at Sears in the Fenway, where he hawked peanuts by calling out: "These peanuts were carried on the backs of elephants and roasted by the hands of Burmese maidens!"

He graduated from Boston College in 1954 and from Boston College Law School in 1957, where he was president of the Fulton Debating Society.

As a young man, he spent summers working as head waiter at the Catalina Club in Hyannis and washed pots at the White Elephant in Nantucket. A friend introduced him to Nancy Louise Bates of South Yarmouth, and he went to see her while she waitressed at a Cape restaurant one afternoon.

She skipped out of work to show Mr. Manning a favorite beach. "I was fired that day," Nancy Manning said.

Years later, she was working in downtown Boston and ran into Mr. Manning on School Street. "It was like fate. He said, 'For heaven's sake, do you have time for a cup of coffee?' I hadn't seen him in years."

The Mannings were married for 48 years.

Mr. Manning earned a master's degree in taxation from New York University School of Law in 1958. He was a teaching fellow and served as student adviser to the Intramural Law Review.

He joined the Army and was assigned to the Office of the Judge Advocate General at the Pentagon from 1959 to 1961. He received a commendation medal while in the Procurement Law Division.

In 1961, Mr. Manning went to work for the Justice Department under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. For five years, he handled tax litigation in federal courts, represented the Justice Department before Congress, and served on a White House task force studying tax-exempt foundations.

He moved his family to the Berkshires in 1966 and joined the law firm Donovan & O'Connor. By 1969, he had moved to Pittsfield and opened a law office.

Mr. Manning was assistant public defender for Berkshire County from 1970 to 1972 before becoming the district attorney.

After his campaign for Congress, Mr. Manning worked for the city of Pittsfield from 1977 to 1980 and was counsel for the Pittsfield Housing Authority from 1970 to 1986.

In addition to spending time with his family, Mr. Manning liked to fish, read nonfiction, and walk his white German shepherd, Mickey.

In addition to his wife, daughter, and son, Mr. Manning leaves two other sons, James of Las Vegas and Richard of West Roxbury; two daughters, Jean Ann of Harwichport and Jennifer McVey of Hyde Park; a sister, Joan Gladman of Mission Hills, Calif.; and a brother, Paul of Lakewood, Calif.

A funeral will be held at 9 a.m. today in Lawler and Crosby Funeral Home in West Roxbury, followed by a Mass at 10 a.m. in St. Theresa of Avila Church in West Roxbury. Burial will follow in St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury.