Manuel McIntyre was born in San Francisco on August 15, 1890 on the feast of the Assumption. He joined the U.S. Army during World War I and by the end of his military career, he held the rank of Corporal.
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| 1918 |
During the war, family history tells that he was exposed to mustard gas which caused nerve damage in both his legs and made him crippled but this did not stop him from loving life. He was very energetic and used two canes to get around.
In the very early 1920s, he married Anna M. Bergman who was born on January 16, 1890 in Sweden. The couple had two children born in San Francisco: a son Robert McIntyre born in 1922 and a daughter, Rose Catherine born in 1925.
Manuel was a machinist in a machine shop, an auto mechanic and later a mechanic in the steel industry. He earned enough money to own his own home in 1930 in San Francisco on Brazil Avenue.
Joanie Hamilton Zandona recalls how her mother, Elizabeth Artiga Hamilton Snipper (1923-2013), told her many stories about how much fun had when Uncle Manuel would come to visit at her mother Mercedes McIntyre Artiga's (1896-1978) home. Manuel taught Mercedes how to drive in a 1926 Packard. Joanie's mother told her how they laughed so hard they almost went off the road.
By the mid-1930s, due to his infirmity and a stroke, Manuel was living at the Veteran's Home in Yountville, California. While at the Veteran's Hospital in 1949, he invented a lightweight inexpensive artificial leg. Since his Dad, Bartolo/Bartholomew, had an artificial leg, is it possible this could have been the inspiration for the invention?
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| Unknown newspaper, 1949 |
Manual died on July 19, 1950 in the Yountville Veteran's Home. He is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California.
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| Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California |
In a letter translated by Patricia Morales Tijerino (grand niece of Manuel) from Maria McIntyre Ruiz (1883-1952) to her sister Elena McIntyre Morales (1886-1974), Maria told about their brother, Manuel's funeral. "On Friday they will go back to Yountville to do the military honors at one in the afternoon. Manuel liked the tribute ceremony to veterans very much."
Photo sources: Sal Bigone and Joanie Zandona
