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The creator of one of northeast Ohio’s oldest and most loved traditions has died.

If you’ve enjoyed Eggshelland over the past more than five decades, you can thank Ron Manolio.

He did all that work for all those years for one reason: to bring happiness to others.

The epic display at his Lyndhurst home last Easter was made of well over 40,000 eggs.

Ron started out with 750 eggs back in 1957 when he didn’t think people were doing enough for Easter.

“And we got huge crowds. Mayfield Road was crowded. The sidewalk was crowded and that’s all Ron needed to get enthused,” said his wife, Betty Manolio. “So he said, ‘let’s do something a little more next year… and a little more… and a little more.’”

And every year Ron got happier because he was making more people smile.

“He loved doing it,” Betty said. “And we all got into it, the whole family. It was a family thing.”

Soon, kids who saw the display in the early years were bringing their own kids and people started coming from miles away to see Ron’s magical creations.

Those creations always included a cross and a theme. They were never a burden, always a treat.

And so a man who just wanted to do something special for Easter became, in a very real way, a ‘part’ of Easter.

How’s that for a legacy?

Ron died of a blood infection on Tuesday at the age of 82.

His family plans to do another Eggshelland next Easter, a tribute to a man who passed along his love of Easter to so many others.

article courtesy of Fox8Cleveland.com

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