Lucy Schenkman Manson

Lucy Schenkman Manson, 82, wife of Joseph Richard (Dick) Manson IV, passed away on Sunday, March 30, 2025 in Clemson, South Carolina.

Born on December 18, 1942, in New York City, Lucy was the daughter of the late Edgar Roy Schenkman and Marguerite Quarles Schenkman. She moved to Virginia with her family in 1948, where her father conducted the Richmond and Norfolk Symphonies. Lucy played the violin. She studied at Oberlin College in Ohio, and graduated from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, with a bachelors’ degree in psychology in 1965. She taught third grade for several years after graduation.

She met Dick Manson in 1963, when both were performing with the Norfolk Symphony, conducted by her father (Dick playing the bassoon, and Lucy singing in the chorus). They married in 1967, and lived in Charlottesville, VA, while Dick finished his PhD in physics at the University of Virginia. They moved to South Carolina in 1969, when he took a faculty position at Clemson University.

They bought land in Central, SC, where they built a house and established a farm, with cows, pigs, chickens, an orchard and a vegetable garden. She played violin in the Greenville Symphony until she had children, at which point she became a devoted stay-at-home mother and dedicated herself to caring for her family. The family also spent substantial time living in Europe while Dick did research there. Starting in 1977, they spent a total of over five years in France, near Paris, including many summers and several sabbatical years. During this time, they traveled extensively around Europe. Starting in 1985, the family spent many summers in Goettingen and Aachen, Germany. Later, Dick and Lucy spent time in San Sebastian, Spain.

She enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren, as well as quilting, sewing and crafts. She also enjoyed researching family genealogy. In the last five years, which she spent at the Clemson Downs, she received excellent care and made many good friends.

She is survived by her husband, Dick Manson; her son, Joseph (Joey) Richard Manson V, his wife, Rebecca Slater, and their three children, Max, Claire, and Sylvie Manson, of Central, SC; her daughter, Abigail Manson, and her children, Nathan and Patrick McGuire, of Massachusetts; and her siblings, Sarah Schenkman, of Savannah, GA, Joe Schenkman, of Rochester, VT, and David Schenkman, of Bryantown, MD. She was predeceased by her brother, Peter Schenkman, of Toronto, Canada.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to your favorite charity.