Editor’s note: An occasional series on the people who have helped build Manteca as the city gets ready to celebrate the 100th anniversary of incorporation this year. Bea Bowlsby is a downtown Manteca merchant who has prevailed through economic downturns, the opening of Walmart and other big box competitors as well as the rise of online commerce.She can also brag that her store — Tipton’s Stationary & Gifts— has been part of Manteca’s community fabric for more than half of the 100 years Manteca has existed as an incorporated city.Nearly every downtown storefront was filled when she and her husband Tip bought the building at the northeast corner of Yosemite and Maple avenues.Bea was born on River Road in Ripon, the third of three girls. Bea said she came along as a surprise to her parents who thought they were through with their family already having daughters Christina, 15, and Gertrude 13 – both of whom have passed away.Her parents Arie and Annie Van den Akker sent her to the Four Tree School in Escalon until she reached the fifth grade and the family moved to Hanford into another Dutch colony.