Yvonne Margarite (Beadsworth) Jackson, 83, of Marion, Massachusetts, passed away on June 28th in Glastonbury, Connecticut surrounded by family after a difficult battle with cancer. Yvonne was married to Richard Hills Jackson for 61 years. Yvonne was born August 10, 1934 in Calcutta India during the British Raj. Her parents, also born in India. Her father was a Captain in the British Army and her mother was a schoolteacher. Yvonne and her sisters Anita, Jean and Pat moved often in India through her father’s army assignments and had exciting adventures including tiger hunting, Indian monsoons, owning a pet monkey and other escapades. Yvonne was very close with her sisters. One of Yvonne’s most favorite parts of her history was her teacher and later principal at Saint Mary’s High School for Girls, Sister Teresa (later known as Mother Teresa). She grew up in Calcutta and became a stewardess with India Airlines where she met Richard Jackson through a blind date while he was in the Navy. Yvonne and Richard corresponded for two years until Richard proposed marriage via letter. Yvonne and Richard were married in 1957 on the US Navy Base in Yokosuka, Japan. They briefly lived on the Navy base in Sacramento, California before moving to Marion Massachusetts. Yvonne (and Richard) was a prominent member of the community, actively involved in many charities and clubs. She was one of the founding members of Marion’s first consignment store, Penny Pincher’s Exchange, which donated over $500,000 to the First Congregational Church of Marion. Yvonne was active with the Tobey Hospital Guild, Marion Women’s Club, Marion Mothers’ Club, Wareham Garden Club, Marion’s Council for Aging and First Congregational Church of Marion (holding the longest chair position of the White Elephant Table).

Yvonne and Richard’s passion for travel brought them to all corners of the world including Asia, Africa, North and South America, Australia, Europe and Antarctica. Yvonne was always looking forward to the next trip. Yvonne is survived by her three sisters Anita (Beadsworth) Gifford of Alicante, Spain, Jean (Beadsworth) Osborne of Barry, Wales and Patricia (Beadsworth) Bean of Bath, England, her daughters Jo Ann Watson and her husband Douglas Watson of Marion, Karen Jackson Milne and her husband Robert Milne of Sudbury, Massachusetts and Amy Jackson-Grove and her husband Wesley (Chopper) Grove of Glastonbury, Connecticut. Also surviving are her five loving grandchildren Alex Boonstra, Jackson Boonstra, Sonia Boonstra, Lucas Grove, Sarah Grove and a Brazilian Exchange student/son Cesar Zimmer.

A service to celebrate Yvonne’s life will be on August 10, 2018 at the Marion Music Hall, 164 Front Street, Marion, MA at 10am, reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Penny Pinchers Exchange, Inc. 3 Wells Rd, Marion, MA 02738.

John Gilbride McManus, 83, of Marion, MA and Vero Beach, FL, died unexpectedly during surgery on July 6, 2018 at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA. The son of the late John Francis and Helen Rose Gilbride, Gil is survived by his wife of 53 years, Barbara Rohrbach McManus; his son, John Gilbride McManus, Jr., and his wife Melissa of Walpole; his daughter, Anne Hurlbut, and her husband Matthew of Marion; 5 grandchildren, Barbara, William, Lila, Natalie, and Teddy.  Gil was born in Boston and lived in Milton, MA before moving to Marion, MA and Vero Beach, FL.

Mr. McManus graduated from Portsmouth Priory School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island in 1952, and from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1956. While at Harvard he was a member of the A.D. Club, and he had many fond memories of his time playing freshman football and hockey there as well.  He served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958. Beginning in 1959, Gil worked for R.M. Bradley and Company, specializing in industrial and commercial real estate, land development, brokerage, and real estate counseling, and was promoted to president in 1983. He was a member of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and the National Association of Real Estate Boards.  While at R.M. Bradley, he consulted with United Fruit, United Brands, Prudential, Gillette, and First National Bank of Boston. He was also a member of the Urban Land Institute.

A man who was well known for his dogged work ethic, Gil also knew how to have fun; he found joy in every nook and cranny of life. He had a deep appreciation for the outdoors, and he enjoyed many a round of golf at the clubs that were near and dear to his heart, especially at The Country Club, Brookline, MA, The Kittansett Club, Marion, MA, The Ekwanok Country Club, Manchester, VT, The Dorset Field Club, Dorset, VT, and The Riomar Country Club and The Moorings Club, Vero Beach, FL.  Gil shared many laughs with dear friends on those greens, and he also enjoyed many years of sailing at The Beverly Yacht Club.

Gil served on the Board of Trustees at Faulkner Hospital, R.M. Bradley and Company, Inc., Noble and Greenough School, The United States Senior Golf Association, and the Board of Investment at The Merchants Cooperative Bank. At The Kittansett Club and The Riomar Country Club, Gil also served on the Board of Governors.  Gil also organized the Harvard Club of Vero Beach in 2004.

Gil always enjoyed skiing, golfing, sailing, a good game of backgammon, Haribo gummy bears, and iced decaf coffee. He had a keen eye for genuine people, befriending them immediately and with great joy. Gil’s booming and welcoming voice was unmistakable, and heads always turned with a smile to know that he was in a room.  He was fiercely devoted to his family and friends, and was endlessly selfless in his relations with them; he thought never of himself, and always of others. Above all, Gil is remembered for his fantastic sense of humor and for his uncanny ability to make each person around him feel uniquely and undeniably special.  Gil was charming, affable, funny, and ceaselessly kind; he lived his life to give to others, whether he was supporting his own mother in old age, providing a loving home and a wonderful education for his children, showering his “bride Barbara” with love, or sharing a laugh with his loyal, one-of-a-kind friends.  Gil was as full of life as they come, and to say that he will be missed is one heck of an understatement.

In life and now in death, Gil was the gentlest of men, and the model of a gentleman. That sentiment has been echoed time and again by all of those who knew him in the days since his passing. The world is a little less bright without him in it, but he would encourage us all to keep smiling and to compensate for the darkness. Keep a twinkle in your eye in his honor, and make the world a better place with kindness, positivity, and oh so much laughter. To borrow one of his common phrases about others, Gil McManus was “one of the great ones.”

There will be a memorial service for Gil on Monday, August 13th at 11:00 am at Saint Gabriel’s Church in Marion, MA with a reception to follow at The Kittansett Club in Marion.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation, if you desire, to St. Gabriel’s Church, P.O. Box 545, Marion, MA 02738 or to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Development Office, 116 Huntington Ave., 3rd floor, Boston, MA 02116.

Arrangements are by the Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, Wareham. For more info and online guestbook, visit: www.ccgfuneralhome.com

Elizabeth Louise “Betty” Cooney, 84, died at home in Marion, MA surrounded by the love of family and friends on July 9, 2018. She was born to the late John and Wilhelmena Donlan on June 13, 1934. Betty’s generosity of spirit was powerfully felt by the people and communities she touched. She had a genius for friendship and an incandescent smile that lit up the journey of her well-lived life.

Betty grew up in Framingham and graduated from Lesley University. In 1958 she married blue-eyed Ed Cooney, the love of her life and partner in countless adventures for 58 years. Betty and Ed knew they had found a very special place when they moved to Marion in 1968. With their four children in tow, they explored every corner of Buzzards Bay with whatever sailboat Ed brought home that year until the WHITE WHALE, a 42-foot wooden Grand Banks, joined the family.

In 1973, sitting at Silvershell Beach, Betty informed her friends that she was “just going to see about a teaching job in Mattapoisett”. It was a visit that defined her life as much as anything else and two generations of Center School first-graders were wrapped in her warmth, laughter and teaching guidance for 28 years.

She loved her students and all her colleagues, including fellow teachers, administrators, cafeteria and janitorial staff. At the end of each summer, she produced epicly welcoming bulletin boards designed to calm and delight anxious kids, new to school. In the winter, students learned to read while sipping hot chocolate. Her family often wondered where all the mugs had gone. Betty gave more than just her heart to teaching and she earned a Masters in Education from Lesley when she was 61.

Betty, also known as “Nana”, was the world’s greatest grandmother to five grandchildren she adored. Hallmark would blush at her enthusiasm for holidays and grandchildren would receive cards and presents on Flag Day. Betty never said “no” to a grandchild’s request that would result in soap suds covering her kitchen floor or a project that might leave a glitter and glue legacy for months.

Betty was an active volunteer, often powerfully, in the background, in many civic organizations including the Marion Garden Club, Sippican School, Community Nurse Home Care of Fairhaven, Alma Del Mar Charter School, The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, Beverly Yacht Club, No Dow Chow, Buzzards Bay Musicfest and Marion-Bermuda Race. It gave her great joy to sing with the Sippican Choral Society for many years.

All of these activities accomplished good for others and provided a delivery system for constant engagement and shared laughter with friends she loved. Her empathetic ear, actress-like facial expressions, sense of humor and boundless generosity and kindness combined to create the ideal friend. It was her gift and she gave it away with joy. Those same qualities created a special and enduring bond with her siblings.

She was predeceased by her husband, Ed. She is survived by her four children, Beth Cooney and her husband Rob Sargent and their children Michaela and Rory, Ted Cooney and his wife Claire and their daughter Elle, Dan Cooney and his wife Kate and their children Henry and Owen and Sarah Garabedian and her husband Mike; and her three siblings Jack, Kathy and Carol and many great nieces and nephews.

A celebration of her life will be held on Monday, August 20 at 10 am at Tabor Academy’s Wickenden Chapel in Marion, MA.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in Betty’s memory to (the amazing) Community Nurse Home Care at 62 Center Street, PO Box 751, Fairhaven, 02719. www.communitynurse.com. Arrangements are with Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd. Route 6, Mattapoisett. For online guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com

Peter A. Cusick, 68, of Dartmouth, died Sunday, July 8, 2018 at his home unexpectedly. He was the husband of the late Sandra (Freienbergs) Cusick.

Born in Boston, he was the son of the late Gerard F. and Jacqueline (Saunders) Cusick. A graduate of Old Rochester Regional High School in 1969, he previously lived in Marion and Rochester before moving to Dartmouth. He was a U.S. Army veteran and honorably discharged in 1972.

Mr. Cusick worked as a chemical processor for The Polaroid Corp. in New Bedford.

Survivors include his daughter, Laura Harris and her husband David of E. Providence, RI; his siblings, Philip P. Cusick of S. Dartmouth, Michael J. Cusick of Fairhaven, Jacqueline A. Avery, and Regina Halpern both of Kennesaw, GA, and Judith Niemi of Wareham; and his grandchildren, Josh, and Kayla Harris. He was predeceased by his daughter, the late Bonnie Lee Cusick, and his brother the late Gerard F. Cusick, Jr.

Funeral services and burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Cape & Islands Veterans Outreach Center of Hyannis, MA.