Manly, Robert C. 1929-1965

MANLY, COOPER, NIELSON, LETTS

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 5/8/2011 at 18:07:44

ROBERT C. MANLY, FORMER RESIDENT, IS SALT LAKE CITY AIR CRASH VICTIM

A flaming plane crash at Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday night brought death to at least 40 persons, one of them a former resident and member of a prominent Grinnell family.

Listed among the dead was Robert Cooper Manly, 36, son of the late Charles Morris Manly and Mrs. Manly of Grinnell.

The Boeing 727 jet airliner, carrying 89 persons, burst into flames while landing at the Salt Lake City airport. Officials of United Air Lines blamed the disaster on a collapse of a nose wheel as the plane touched the ground.

Manly, an oil broker in Salt Lake City, had been to Casper, Wyo., on business and had boarded the plane for the flight to Salt Lake City at Denver. The fatal crash occurred on his 36th birthday, which was also the birthday of his mother.

The son of Charles M. and Nelle Cooper Manly, he was born in Grinnell on November 11, 1929.

He was a graduate of Grinnell high school with the class of 1947 and then attended Drake University in Des Moines for one year. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, in 1951, with a degree in business administration.

In 1953, he entered the oil business in Casper, Wyo. In 1955, he entered Denver University and also the University of Utah where he studied law.

He had since lived in Salt Lake City where he operated a successful oil and gas lease brokerage business.

Mr. Manly was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and was also a member of several professional and business organizations.

On September 12, 1959, at Pocatello, Ida., he was united in marriage with Margaret Nielson, who survives him at the home in Salt Lake City. He is also survived by his three daughters, Connie Jo, age 3, Christie, age 2, and Cindy, age 5 months.

Other survivors include his mother, Mrs. Nelle Manly of Grinnell; his sister, Mrs. John K. (Mary Bea) Letts of Durango, Colo.; and three brothers, John of San Carlos, Calif., Charles M., a Grinnell attorney, and William F. of Phoenix, Ariz.

He was preceded in death by his father, Charles Morris Manly, on March 12, 1951.

Funeral services were held at noon today (Monday) from the Larkin funeral home in Salt Lake City. Burial was at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park in Salt Lake City.

Here in Grinnell, memorial services were conducted at 1 p.m. today from the Congregational Church with the pastor, the Rev. Newell Davis, officiating.

Members of the Manly family were in Salt Lake City to attend today's services.