Peter Mancino

Ancestors

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Biography

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Sources

1. ↑ Personal recollection of events witnessed by Shirley Mancino as remembered 9 Apr 2018. The middle child, Peter, was born April 2 or 3, 1916 in Toronto. He had several birth certificates with varying dates. He was a good-looking, clever child with fair hair when he was young. He grew up to be very handsome. He looked like a movie star. He was only 5’ 4’’ tall. He wanted very much to Anglicize himself. This was possibly because all immigrants were discriminated against in WASPish Toronto at the time. This might have been one of the reasons he was attracted to Irene Lynn. Apparently, it was desirable in those days to marry a WASP if you could. They met at Sunnyside Amusement park while she was in Toronto going to secretarial school. She told her daughters after they were safely married that she “picked him up”. Irene Margaret Lynn (born Oct 18, 1919) was descended from United Empire Loyalists and northern Scotch-Irish ancestry. Peter was very land hungry. He always said that once he saw her family’s farm in Westport that he was determined to marry her. They married in Westport Sept 04/1941. Irene convinced him to return to school and attend the same business college she had. She also said she would not marry him if he did not start using his real name (he had been using Peter Mange after his teachers changed the name to make it more pronounceable. He started using Mancino pronounced in the Italian way with a "ch" sound for the "c". After daughter Shirley was born, her hopital bracelet spelled the family name Manchino. They must have grown tired of explaining the correct pronunciation and spelling. They switched to using the anglized version of "c" pronounced softly like an "s”. When WWII broke out, Peter tried to join the army. Again, Italians were heavily discriminated against because Italy was now the enemy as it joined the Axis nations with Hitler. Italians, even those born in Canada, suddenly became enemy aliens. They were fired, incarcerated in detention camps and generally treated suspiciously. Peter was finally able to join the Air Force after being refused for a number of months. He started off at the lowest rank and climbed the rank ladder to become a sergeant. He chafed at not being able to come and go as he pleased. One time he went AWOL and was charged. After the war, air men who wanted to stay in the service were demoted one rank. Peter was a corporal again but was ultimately made a flight sergeant, a rank at which he stayed until his retirement. They had four children: Lynn Peter, (born Sept 08, 1943), Shirley Theresa, born Mar 13, 1946, Grace Patricia born April 25, 1947 and Michael Gordon, born Nov 19, 1949. All during the war and immediately afterwards, Irene lived at home in Westport while Peter worked in Ottawa and in Quebec. It was not until after Michael's birth in 1949 that the family actually had a home together. Their first home was a cottage at Crystal Beach outside Ottawa. The family spent a very cold winter there before moving to a more substantial house in Aylmer, then to Rockcliffe Air base in 1952 when they first started building the PMQs on the airbase. From there, they moved to Cold Lake Alta (1954), and moved into newly built PMQ's there. In 1956, they moved to Montreal, living initially in a very small apartment in Notre Dame de Grasse NDG. They then moved the family out to the suburbs buying their first home in Beaconsfield in 1958 for $12,000. Then in 1961, they returned to Ottawa to Rockcliffe Airbase. The family lived about 8 doors down from the house they had lived in in 1952. Peter retired from the military in 1964, still with the rank of sergeant. Peter and Irene had a very stormy marriage. He was never very happy with himself as he had ambitions to be rich and own lots of land. He never accomplished his dreams. He had been brought up as the little prince with his mother doting on him. My mother, a strong and independent woman refused to kowtow to him. She and he always had a battle for control in the relationship. After he retired from the forces in 1964, the family settled in Ottawa buying a home in 1965. Peter went into real estate and did very well for the next few years. He had been a very heavy smoker since age 12, and developed pains in his chest while still in the forces. They were never able to make a correct diagnosis until he had his first heart attack. After having his fourth heart attack in early December of 1968, the family was told that he would never recover completely as there was too much damage to his heart. He died Jan 23, 1969. He was age 52. He died at the Riverside Hospital where he had been convalescing for almost two months. He is buried at Pinecrest Cemetery, Ottawa. Some 16 years later, Irene retired from her secretarial position at the National Energy Board when she turned 65. She continued to live in Ottawa for a number of years spending each summer in Westport until 1998. She started living full time on Sand Lake, Westport in the home of her son Michael close to the house where she was born.