Tyra Manning was a consequential superintendent for River Forest’s public elementary schools. She led the schools from 1992 to 2000 and, in our view, brought a modern and more ambitious vision of what our elementary and middle schools could accomplish.
We remember her best though for what followed her District 90 tenure. We reported on her long path to the 2006 repatriation of the remains of her husband, James Hull. An Air Force pilot, he died in 1971 while on a secret mission in Laos. And we reported on his eventual burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
Manning wrote a brave book, a memoir, about her complicated life from issues of substance abuse and mental illness following her husband’s death and through to her return to her West Texas roots.
A remarkable and well lived life.