March 12, 1993
Father Thomas McManus
Father McManus was born on November 12, 1929 in Esker, County Longford, Ireland. He did his secondary studies at St. Mel’s College, Longford, and his seminary studies at St. Peter’s College, Wexford where he was ordained in the seminary chapel on June 7, 1953. He served as an assistant at St. Mary’s Cathedral; McPherson; Holy Cross Parish, Hutchinson; and St. Patrick Parish, Parsons, before being granted permission to enter the U.S. Air Force as a chaplain in 1960. “He served at Da Nang, Vietnam, air base and received an Air Force commendation medal for Operation Life-Line, when he took care of 600 orphaned Vietnamese children.” (The Catholic Advance, March 19, 1993) After twenty-three years in the Air Force he worked in the Diocese of Charleston, in Ireland, and in the Diocese of St. Petersburg in Florida. His funeral was celebrated at Divine Redeemer Church in Hanahan, South Carolina, and he was buried in St. Emer’s Cemetery, in Ballinalee, County Longford, Ireland.