Roger Manne

Back in 1962, Roger and I were classmates in the fourth grade at Travis Elementary in Baytown, TX. Each morning, our day began with the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. I still remember the day Roger arrived late and interrupted us to announce that this would be the last time we’d be allowed to pray in public school, citing a new Supreme Court ruling that prohibited it. We were all shocked that he would interrupt such a sacred moment, and our teacher promptly scolded him for being disrespectful.

Years later, in 1984, when President Reagan sought to reinstate school prayer, I was a Catholic Franciscan friar. I got into trouble for writing a letter to the local newspaper expressing my opposition, recalling the discomfort of a Jewish boy in my fourth-grade class who had been compelled to join in a Christian ritual. At last, I had heard Roger.

Roger Joel Manne was born in Baytown, Texas on July 25, 1953.  He was the son of Richard Manne, a chemical engineer, and Beverly Maisel Manne, a registered nurse. His younger brothers were Neal and Burton.  Roger was a precocious student, winning awards for his scholarship. He was a good musician who played in school bands.  Roger developed mental health issues as a teen and these continued during and after his attendance at the University of Texas in Austin. He was a political radical who worked to organize unions and endorsed communism and anarchism.  When he wasn’t being deadly serious, he had a wry sense of humor. Throughout his 20s Roger struggled with his mental health. He was hospitalized or institutionalized multiple times, some voluntarily and others not. He made a failed suicide attempt in 1978 and a successful one on July 31, 1984, when he threw himself in front of an oncoming subway train in New York City and was killed instantly. After efforts to locate his family failed, Roger was buried in the “potter’s field” on Hart Island in New York. In 1988 his family learned of Roger’s death and his remains were exhumed and returned to them. At a memorial attended by Roger’s friends and family later that year, his cremated ashes were scattered at a place that was meaningful to Roger and his family. Though he was only buried at Hart Island for about 4 years, Roger would have loved that his resting place there was alongside many people who were nameless or powerless, and that the labor for his burial there was likely done by people imprisoned at Riker’s Island.  In his memory, Roger’s family financially supports The Hart Island Project.