Manuel DeSilva

CHANUTE ? Mass of Christian Burial for Manuel “Manny” DeSilva, 79, Lawrence, will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Patrick Catholic Church, Chanute. Burial with graveside military honors presented by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 1654 will be at Memorial Park Cemetery.

Mr. DeSilva died Sunday, July 27, 2003, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

He was born June 18, 1924, in Lowell, Mass., the son of Richard and Maria J. (Branco) DeSilva. He grew up in Rhode Island.

Mr. DeSilva served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was an electrical engineer for Rockwell Corp. in California for 30 years, then retired.

He later worked for Boeing Corp. in Wichita, and retired again.

He married Petrina Santo Sperito. She died in 1966. He married Suzanne DeSilva in 1981. She survives, of the home.

Other survivors include a son, George, North Carolina; two daughters, Marilyn Currie and Tina MacArthur, both of California; a stepson, Roger McAuley, Texas; a stepdaughter, Catherine Williams, Lawrence; four brothers, Albert, Richard and Arthur, all of Rhode Island, and Edward, Massachusetts; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Family will receive friends from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m today at Johnson Mortuary, Chanute.