Frances Bynum

Community Service

Frances Bynum has lived in Manteca for 43 years. She founded and managed the organization called "Love Thy Neighbor" by working out of her home. Fifteen years ago, she had the organization incorporated. It now serves people over 22,000 times a year in the Manteca area.

For those who came to her door and asked for a place to sleep, she found a bed.

For those who needed warm clothes, she provided them.

For those who were hungry. she provided food from the cupboards of "Love Thy Neighbor." She also coordinates efforts to provide toys for children at Christmas as well as holiday food baskets for the needy at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

She was selected as the 1973 Manteca Chamber Commerce Citizen of the Year. She also has received the Girl Scouts Hidden Heroine award three times, the Jefferson Service Award for Distinguished Service in 1984, The San Joaquin Peace Officers Distinguished Service Award, the 1976 San Joaquin Citizen of the Year Award as well as others.

Guss Schmiedt

Education

Guss Gilbert Schmiedt was born in Oregon in 1892 and moved to the Manteca area in 1906.

According to his son Lester Schmiedt. "Guss was not a man of much education himself, but he was bound and determined that others would get an education." He was on the Veritas School Board for 44 years. He was also on the founding Board of Education for the Manteca Union High School District in 1921 and remained active on that board for over 40 years.

Schmiedt was also active in the formation of the Manteca Grange and Manteca Chamber of Commerce. The football field at Manteca High is named in his honor. Schmiedt helped construct the original football field at the high school.

Howard Edgar Shideler

Agriculture

Howard Edgar Shideler was a 1931 Petaluma High graduate who graduated from the University of California at Davis in 1934 after completing a two year poultry husbandry program.

He worked for the El Solyo Ranch at Vernalis until 1947 and followed that with a stint in Linden before moving to Manteca where he worked on a turkey ranch before starting his own on Yosemite Avenue just east of McKinley Avenue.

The Sebastapol native lived in Manteca for 59 years. He was president of the California Turkey Growers’ Association and attended six national conventions on the West Coast and one international convention in Paris.

He was a leader of the Lathrop 4-H Club for 27 years, served as president of the San Joaquin County 4-H Leaders Council and was a 20 year member of the Stockton Production Credit Association Advisory Board.

A longtime member of the Lathrop-French Camp Farm Bureau, he also served as a Lathrop School District trustee tor six years.

He was a charter member of the Manteca Noon Rotary Club and had 34 years of perfect attendance. He also helped found the Manteca Historical Society.

John Franklin Jessee

Business

John Franklin Jessee, known as "Frank" Jessee, was born in the eastern hills of Tennessee on Nov. 28. 1889. He arrived in Manteca on a train from Tennessee in 1909 at age 19, with no more than a small suit case and a coupe of dollars in his pocket.

Joshua Cowell gave him a room. His first job at the Cowell Ranch was driving a double wagon and a team of four horses carrying produce to the Stockton Port.

He later became an agent for Wells Fargo Stage Coach Lines which later became Railway Express Agency. He eventually branched into several other businesses including buying and selling horses as well as farming alfalfa, grapes. wheat and walnuts. In his later years, he concentrated on selling residential and commercial property.

Jessee was a charter member of the Manteca Oddfellows Lodge, served on the Manteca City Council from 1932 to 1936 and again from 1940 to 1944, served on the Manteca Elemenary School Board from 1932 to 1962 and was appointed to the National Selective Service Board by President Franklin Roosevelt from 1940 to 1944.

John McFall

Government

John Joseph McFall was born in Buffalo, NY, on Feb. 20, 1918. On May 20, 1918 (three days before Manteca was incorporated), he moved to the city that Joshua Cowell helped found.

The 1934 Manteca High graduate went on to earn a poltical science and law degrees at the University of California at Berkeley.

He was mayor of Manteca shortly after completing World War II service with the Army’s Security Intelligence Corps.

McFall was elected to the California Assembly in 1951 and served in the legislature until 1956 when he gained election to the U.S. Congress. McFall was appointed floor whip to the Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill, in 1971, and served as majority whip from January 1973 to January 1978.

McFall was chairman for eight years of the powerful transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. He also served on the Defense Sub-Committee where he was instrumental in preventing the closure of Sharpe Army Depot by securing the $100 million automated ware house for the facility.

Judy Vasquez

Health Care

A 30-year resident of Manteca, Judy Vasquez has dedicated three decades of service to patients a Doctors Hospital of Manteca where she has earned the respect of her peers, patients, and families throughout the community.

She is presently Director of Quality Management. Her duties include coordinating quality review, discharge planning, risk management, infection control, employee health, and other responsibilities.

The 1959 Sonora High grad completed the four-year course of study at San Joaquin School of Nursing in 1962.

She has been involved in various school and Scout group leadership rolls as well as a member of Soroptimist International of Manteca and the Doctors Hospital of Manteca Auxiliary. She serves as student volunteer leader at the hospital.

She has also made significant contributions to CPR training efforts, the "I Can Cope" cancer program and the Hospice of San Joaquin County.z

Milo Candini

Athletics

Milo Candini is a Manteca native who signed a professional baseball contract with the New York Yankees in 1936. He was later traded to and played for the Washington Senators of the American League. He pitched to all-time baseball legend Lou Gehrig, hit a home run to the deepest reaches of Monument Valley at Yankee Stadium, guarded President Truman on opening day, played for the now famous 1950 Philadelphia Whiz Kids and played eight years in
the majors and 13 years in the minor leagues.

His major league record was 26 wins, 21 losses; .533 winning percentage; started 37 games; had 13 complete games; pitched a total of 537.2 innings; five shutouts; and won 12 games in relief with eight saves.

He has 144 plate appearances with a respectable .243 batting average. As a fielder, he committed a minuscule three errors for a .987 fielding percentage.

Thomas Olson

Art

Thomas Olson grew up in Oakland. He graduated from Hayward High in 1945. He served in Korea two years and graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

After graduating, he secured a position as cow tester for Stanislaus County for two years before going into business for himself as a dairy man. He eventually went to work as a San Joaquin County health inspector where he was employed until 1977.

That's the year Olson opted to make his living as an artist. His paintings and drawings are highly prized in private collections throughout California. His works often center on California history and rural life.

Among his art awards are the Mayors Committee on the Arts Recognition Award in 1992, having his paintings featured at the National League of American Pen, as well as numerous gallery awards.

He helped organize Manteca's first Artists' Guild and Mantecas Arts in the Park program. He has conducted numerous painting demonstrations in Northern California.