Shelter Island Reporter obituary: Alexandria Carey McManus

Alexandria “Randy” Carey McManus passed away on April 4, 2021. She was the beloved wife of ‘Hank’ Henry McManus, and devoted mother of Peter Hugh (Liz) McManus and Eileen (Mike) McManus Reddan and cherished ‘Grandy’ to Autumn, Patrick Henry, Peter Cristian, and Carey Regan.

Randy’s parents were the late Gov. Hugh L. Carey and Helen Owen Carey. Randy was also the daughter of Ensign John Twohy, her mother’s first husband, who was killed in a training accident in the Pacific theater during World War II prior to her birth. She was the favorite sister (“TFS”) to 13 Carey siblings and adored by dozens of extended family.

Randy was a graduate of St. Agnes Seminary in Brooklyn and Marymount College in Tarrytown. In high school, she and several friends formed the “Carey Girls,” costumed in red, white and blue to promote her father’s first candidacy for Congress in 1960, as well as John F. Kennedy’s Presidential campaign. As a college student, she participated in voter registration efforts in minority communities in the South.

In her professional career, she successfully developed funding for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and handled public relations for Lincoln Center in New York City.

She met Hank McManus when he was deputy campaign manager for her father’s first gubernatorial run in 1974. They were married in January 1975 at the Lady Chapel at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where Governor and Mrs. Carey had been married, and where her daughter Eileen would be married as well.

Randy’s dedication to her faith was a guiding force in her life, her family recalled. She was an active volunteer for the CHIPS program in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which provides meals to the hungry and shelters young mothers and their infants. Randy and Hank lived in Park Slope, where she served on the board of the Helen Owen Carey Child Development Center.

They spent summers in their lovely home on Shelter Island, where she enjoyed gatherings with her many family members. She was an avid tennis player and shared summer days with many friends at the Shelter Island Heights Beach Club.

She was a talented artist, whose creativity literally bloomed with the beautiful renderings of flowers she liked to paint. Her crackling sense of humor, ready laugh and graceful beauty will be missed. A service will be held at her final resting place on Saturday, May 29 at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of the Isle Cemetery.

Donations in her memory may be made to CHIPS, 200 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 (chipsonline.org).