Neuma housed several temporarily homeless people, and took some students to her home to learn to read and write through a literacy programme featuring local swear words invented by her.
[6] Neuma's father Saturnino Gonçalves co-founded the traditional samba school Bloco dos Arengueiros in 1928, which later became the Estação Primeira de Mangueira.
[5] In the 1950s, Neuma learnt of a school in Madureira that had a substantial default rate and brought some students to her shack made of brick-and-wood to learn to read and write through a literacy programme featuring local swear words that she invented.
"[5] Individuals such as Chico Buarque, Ricardo Cravo Albin, Pedro Ernesto Baptista, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Negrão de Lima, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Noel Rosa frequented her home.
[12] Neuma was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Hospital Municipal Salgado Filho in Méier, northern Rio de Janeiro, with a hemorrhagic stroke caused by dizziness and fainting at home on 6 July 2000.
"[4] In 2001, the composer Arlindo Cruz made a song Primeira Dama da Mangueira for the album A paixão tem memória to commemorate Neuma.