
Manley Leon Rusho (93), passed away peacefully on January 25, 2025, in Lake Mary, Florida. He was born on a farm on Grindstone Island, New York (one of the Thousand Islands located on the St. Lawrence River between NY and Canada) on April 25, 1931. Named after his paternal grandfather, he was the oldest child of Leon M. and Marjorie (Dano) Rusho. Manley attended the Lower School (a one-room schoolhouse) on the island and then attended and graduated from Clayton Central School in Clayton, NY as the valedictorian.
He was awarded a college scholarship to Cornell University, but he attended for only a year, because he admits that he didn’t apply himself and was too homesick. After coming back home, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, where after boot camp, he was sent off to fight in the Korean War. He was always very proud of his service as a Marine though he rarely talked about what he endured in the war. Many years later, he was invited to go to Washington, D.C. as an Honor Flight guest with his youngest grandson as his escort. Manley was so honored to have this experience and spoke of it fondly.
Growing up on an island, Manley learned to respect and to navigate the St. Lawrence River at an early age. Long before GPS was available, he was taught as a young boy how to read a compass and use a pocket watch for tracking the time to travel back and forth from the island to the mainland especially in bad weather. He taught his family members and many others how to pilot a boat, navigate the river, and respect nature. He was a true River Rat, as they are referred to in the Thousand Islands. Hunting and fishing were part of survival during his early days, he especially loved fishing, and it became a favorite pastime of his for his entire life. He knew all the best fishing spots around Grindstone Island too.
After his time in the Marines, he returned to Clayton, NY where he met and married a local girl, Mary Lou Nunn in 1955. Manley began working for New York Bell as a lineman and cable splicer, and they made their home in Alexandria Bay, NYand began raising their four daughters. In 1969, Manley accepted a job transfer to Sanford, Florida to work for Southern Bell (AT&T).
Education was important to Manley and Mary Lou, bothattended Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida in the evenings to obtain their degrees. During this busy time, they both workedfull-time jobs, while attending college and raising their family too. In 1974, they both graduated from Rollins, he obtained a master’s degree in history, and she obtained a bachelor’s in elementary education. Mary Lou then started her long teaching career at an elementary school.
The family attended the Upsala Presbyterian Church in Sanford, Florida for many years, where Manley was a deacon and a youth leader. He often planned youth camping and rafting trips to the different springs around the state.
After Manley retired from Southern Bell/AT&T, he started his own business working in the Midwest laying cable for telephone and future internet services. He then took his favorite job of being a college educational instructor teaching history onboardU.S. Naval ships. With this job, he was able to see the world from different ports at no cost to him. He was on board a ship in the Middle East when the Gulf War broke out and he was quickly dropped at a nearby port with other civilians on the ship and flown home. He often spoke of Turkey being his favorite country to visit.
Manley and Mary Lou both were world travelers. Traveling for them included meeting new people and making them lifelong friends as well as experiencing new cultures and enjoying the beauty of the world. On a favorite summer vacation, they rented a canal boat and floated all over England visiting villages along the English countryside.
Manley started a hobby of making wooden duck decoys, shore birds, owls and fish in the early 1980s, a craft he learned as a young boy from an uncle. His distinct primitive design-style attracted people to collecting his various wooden creations. He set up a workshop at his home in Florida and at his place on Grindstone and called them his “Duck Works”.
About this same time, he started buying and selling antique guns. He loved setting up booths at gun shows and meeting people who bought his carved birds or antique guns. He continued to attend gun shows right up to 2024.
Manley and Mary Lou started purchasing small homes in Florida in the 1980s. They renovated the homes and either sold them for a profit or used them as a rental property. They did this long before people were flipping homes. One home they purchased in Debary, Florida came with a goat living inside! The house was forever known as the “goat house”.
In 1990, Manley purchased 75 acres on Grindstone Island, NY, his beloved childhood home and built a family compound for summer adventures for their entire family. Manley and Mary Lou built a cottage with their own hands and then added a small guest cottage on the property. They also bought and renovated the abandoned Lower Schoolhouse, where Manley was once a student. They worked tirelessly on the schoolhouse to save it from further deterioration and used it for many years as a guest cottage.
For almost thirty years, that property on Grindstone Island was a main source of summer fun, memories and entertainment for the family. Manley and Mary Lou generously shared the property with their family and friends all summer long. Everyone wanted to be on the island and summer vacations were planned months in the advance to be there for the island events and special family time. Manley would drop everything when his grandchildren visited to take them fishing, build another tree house or help repair a broken-down lawn tractor. He boughtseveral old riding lawn mowers, removed the mowing decks and they became a source of entertainment and transportation for the various children visiting the property. His children and grandchildren all have amazing memories of their summers on Grindstone Island where they were taught life skills such as gardening, fishing, kayaking, camping, carved wooden birds and fish, hunting, how to pilot a boat, how to drive a stick-shift car, and a tractor.
Additionally, Manley and Mary Lou were both very involved in the busy summer social scene on the island that included theGrindstone Island Heritage Center and Grindstone Island Church. Manley became the official history tour guide of Grindstone Island and even purchased a small used school bus to give tours and to pick up islanders for church every Sunday. He also cared for the Civil War cemetery on the island, by cleaning the headstones, mowing, and putting out American flags on Memorial Day each year. His knowledge of the island and the St. Lawrence River was unmatched and his ability to recall stories and history was admired by everyone.
Manley started the Men’s Coffee Club on the island, where many of the men would meet at Chester Taylor’s barn for early morning coffee and solve all the world’s problems. It wasn’t long before Mary Lou wanted a Ladie’s Coffee too and she created that weekly island event as well.
Manley had a green thumb and could grow just about anything. He grew vegetables with his kids and grandchildren, and as he aged, he grew beautiful flowers in his yard. He built (at age 89) an outdoor irrigation system in his yard to make it easier to water his vast flower garden.
Unfortunately, in 2008, Mary Lou was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and died shortly after her diagnosis. Manley and his family continued to go to the island each summer, but it was never the same without Mary Lou. In 2019, the property on the island was sold to the Thousand Islands Land Trust and the schoolhouse was sold to the Heritage Center and made into the Grindstone Island Heritage Museum. His beloved 75 acres on Grindstone Island is now a land preserve, just as he wanted it to be – returned to nature. And the schoolhouse that he preserved is now allowing others to learn about the history of his beloved island.
Despite several health issues, including the amputation of his right leg due to an infection, Manley continued to live on his own and remain independent until the end of 2023. It was apparent that he needed additional assistance, and he reluctantly moved into an assisted living facility in Lake Mary, Florida. Once he adjusted to the move, he enjoyed living there in his own apartment, made friends, enjoyed the caring staff, and often ventured out to have breakfast with his friends at IHOP. He also enjoyed spending his time reading, watching old movies, researching online, buying things on Amazon, and going on Facebook to catch up with his family and friends.
A couple of years ago, Manley celebrated his 90th Birthday with an honor guard from the U.S. Marine Corps. A family friend arranged the surprise visit of the active-duty Marines at the party and Manley was truly honored to be the recipient of this grand gesture.
In 2021, at the age of 90, he began writing stories about hisunique life and childhood adventures of growing up on an island. He was quite a gifted writer, and he has had 34 of his short stories published in a monthly online publication Thousand Islands Life Magazine. Manley enjoyed reading responses, comments, letters, and emails from people who read his stories. It is his wish that his collection of stories be put into a book and his family will make sure that it gets done. Read some of his stories: www.thousandislandslife.com/author/manley/
Manley was a lifelong member of: Rotary Club; American Legion; VFW; 70-year member of the Masons; and Telephone Pioneer Club.
Anyone who met Manley figured out quickly that he was quite a character who lived life to the fullest. He will be remembered for his quick wit, sense of humor, and positive attitude about life. Even at the end of his life, when someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “Never been better”. He could fix just about anything and often helped others in need. His children and grandchildren will forever remember the wisdom and life lessons he taught them. He was an avid reader until his eyesight recently failed and he could speak about many interesting topics and adventures. His mind remained very sharp up to the end and his recall of life events was uncanny.
Manley was preceded in death by his parents; his wife of 53 years Mary Lou Nunn Rusho; his daughter Sheryl Rusho Mokris; and great-granddaughter Eleanor. Manley is survived by his daughters Susan (Andy) Greenberg; Cindy (Jon) Hagemann; Cathy (Rob) Reed, 16 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren; siblings Milton, Robert, Leon (Junior) Rusho, and Alice Peron, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.
The family plans to host a celebration of life for Manley in the summer of 2025 in the Thousand Islands area, when he will be laid to rest with military honors next to his wife and daughter.
Donations in memory of Manley L. Rusho may be to made to the Grindstone Island Church (Capital Campaign) www.giucmc.org or Grindstone Island Heritage Museum www.grindstoneisland.org .
Allen & Susan Benas
To the entire Rusho family, please accept Susan’s and my sympathy for your loss. I didn’t know Manley as well as his father and brother, “JR,” but well enough to know that whenever he entered the scene everyone there was in the presence of “River Rat Royalty.” If my monthly edition of TI Life included one of his stories I would immediately jump to it, often reading some twice to make sure I didn’t miss anything the first time. I’m sure many “boomers” who love the river life, as I, look back on his tales wishing we could have been there to share in them. To Manley, God Bless and “Semper Fi.”
Richard Withington
Manley and his family have enriched our lives beyond measure. A truly great River Rat.! There is no higher compliment, that says it all.
STEVEN P Strouse
So sorry to hear of your dads passing, I remember both your mom and dad from when I was young and they lived in A Bay, they were friends with my mom and dad , my mom always looked forward to seeing them when they were in Clayton, I always enjoyed reading his stories he was a gifted writer, hopefully one day you will publish them fir generations to enjoy may your mom and rest in peace
Thomas Neely
We were fortunate to become friends of the Rusho family.
Memories! God speed Manley.
Large life, large love, large loss. I am sorry
Sylvia Anderson-Shoultes
Manley passing leaves many of us who knew him with heavy hearts,but with joyous memories . I grew up with this family, but did not know Manley as well until his return to the Island in his later years. He was always a charmer and I loved his stories of Island life many before my time which made them that much more interesting.
My condolences go out to his family. He lived a wonderful life and to the fullest as only Manley could do. He will be greatly missed.