Yvonne Schenk Obituary

Yvonne Zinn McManis Schenk Yvonne was born in Riverton, Iowa, a small town in the southwestern part of the state, on February 9, 1919. She grew up an only child. Her parents were Arline Longman and Vernon Zinn. While Yvonne was still a young girl, her maternal grandparents moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, for health reasons, taking Yvonne and her mother with them. Yvonne was an exceptional student throughout her school years, graduating from Grand Junction High School in 1936 as the Class Valedictorian. She was awarded a scholarship to Northwestern University where she majored in Speech and Drama, attending classes with Charlton Heston and Jennifer Jones. During the summer of 1938, Yvonne worked as a waitress at Canyon Lodge in Yellowstone National Park, where she met Charles McManis, another only child and a student at the time at the University of Minnesota. Yvonne and Charlie began a summer romance that never ended. After graduating from Northwestern in 1940, Yvonne worked for a year as a school teacher in Fort Collins, Colorado. She and Charlie were married in Grand Junction on June 12, 1941, and they remained married for 44 years until Charlie died unexpectedly of a heart attack on December 21, 1985, the darkest day of the year. While Yvonne was teaching school, Charlie was selling band instruments for C. G. Conn in the Boston area, having graduated from Minnesota in 1940. After they were married, Yvonne and Charlie rented an apartment near the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts, in the Merrimac River valley. Their two children were born there: James McManis in 1943 and John McManis in 1946. Charlie continued his work as a Music Man, while Yvonne worked as the church secretary at the Congregational Church in Haverhill. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, Charlie quit his job as a salesman and spent the war years working as a Treasury agent on the Boston waterfront. After the war, Charlie's father, J. W. McManis, asked the young couple to come to Minnesota and help him found a construction company in anticipation of the post-war building boom. Yvonne and Charlie and their two boys moved to St. Paul in 1946, living for two years with Charlie's folks while building a new house on a lot J. W. had won in a poker game. Yvonne worked with Charlie and his father in the construction business for 6 years, often putting her two sons in the back of the pick up while she drove from one job site to another. Despite everyone's best efforts however, McManis Construction Co. was a bust and went out of business in 1952. Charlie got a job as a salesman for Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. which became the 3M Company, and the family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where they lived for 5 years while Charlie sold traffic signs. During this time, Yvonne had her own radio show, offering shopping tips as Miss Penny Saver. She also used her lifelong love of games to keep her son, John, indoors during the Polio Years, playing endless games of Chinese Checkers. Jim was sent to camp. On family vacations, Yvonne insisted on playing six hands of Bridge before each meal, a practice Jim and John enthusiastically embraced and Charlie tolerated. During the St. Paul years, and continuing while the family lived in Appleton, Yvonne gave "readings" where she told stories, recited poems, and otherwise delivered "the literary goods" to groups on holidays and other special occasions. A born performer, Yvonne entertained many audiences over the years with her dramatic renditions of all manner of material, frequently with two little boys sitting enraptured in the front row. When Charlie got a promotion in 1957, the family returned to the Twin Cities and lived in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, for 4 years. Another promotion followed, and Charlie was transferred to the San Francisco office of the 3M Company which occasioned a move for the family to Los Altos, California, where they lived for 10 years. During her years in California, Yvonne oversaw a mathematics project at Stanford University, the School Math Study Group (SMSG), which was then developing a curriculum to teach the "New Math." She also did graduate work at San Jose State University and sent her two sons off to college: Jim to Stanford, and John to Pomona. She got a lot of gray hair during their teen years. In 1971, Charlie was transferred back to 3M's headquarters in St. Paul, where he and Yvonne lived until his retirement in 1976. Following retirement, Yvonne and Charlie moved to San Jose, California, where they lived out their remaining years together until Charlie's untimely death in 1985 at the age of 72. Yvonne was then 66 years old. Both Charlie and Yvonne loved to read and to travel, which they did extensively during these years. They were happy together (although Yvonne grumbled that Charlie was "always underfoot"), and took pride in the accomplishments of their sons, Jim as a San Jose trial lawyer and John as a San Francisco businessman. Yvonne also liked to point out that "the boys" had "married well." After Charlie's death, Yvonne continued to live in San Jose until she met Ted Schenk, a widower who had been married to one of her PEO sisters. Yvonne and Ted were married and moved to The Meadows in Los Gatos, where they lived until her death. In her years at The Meadows, Yvonne continued her lifetime of good works reading for the blind, teaching English to various members of staff, giving Evening Vespers, and otherwise contributing to the retirement community, which recognized Yvonne as Volunteer of the Year for her distinguished service. Yvonne was diagnosed with terminal cancer on her 90th birthday, February 9, 2009. She elected to forego treatment and passed away at The Meadows about 3 months later on May 1, 2009, leaving her husband, two sons, and a grandson and granddaughter. Throughout her married life, Yvonne showed both strength and warmth in her relations with others. Possessed of a formidable intellect, she was both cheerful and forceful, and set a good example for all. Charlie could never talk about her without tears in his eyes and insisted she was responsible for whatever success he enjoyed. To her sons, Yvonne passed along her energy and humor and gave them their love and respect for the women of the world. Yvonne was proud of her daughters-in-law, often telling Jim that his wife, Sara, was the best gift he had ever given her, and remaining close to John's first wife, Mary, while greatly prizing his present wife, Bonnie. Yvonne also bragged about her grandchildren, James, an Emeryville businessman, and Allison, a student at Vassar. Yvonne was a remarkable woman, who will be missed. A service celebrating the life of Yvonne Zinn McManis Schenk will be held on Saturday, May 23, 2009, at 2:00 o'clock PM, at the First Congregational Church of San Jose, 1980 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, California. Contributions may be sent to Hospice of the Valley, 4850 Union Avenue, San Jose, CA 95124.