Juanita Holland Malone re-energized the Texas skies by entering the world on June 9, 1924, and the popular words of “My Juanita” lit up the airwaves with: “In the dark eyes’ splendor, where the warm light loves to dwell…” In 1906, the song was the forerunner of an unknown future, the year her grandparents, Curt and Alice Malone – with family in tow – traveled by train from Greenville, Tennessee to Collin County, Texas. There, they planted their young children and their crops in the rich Texas soil. One of those children, Willie Dowe Malone, Sr., married Wanda Bellows in 1922 and together they brought Juanita and her brothers, Dowe and Tony into a loving Christian home.

After Juanita graduated from Prosper High School in 1941, she sashayed off to Texas State College for Women and focused on her social life. “Mamma was a looker” and the boys surrounded her when she arrived on the Texas A&M campus for “Aggie Weekends,” but it was a charming young man in flight school who put a ring on her finger. Eventually, Juanita, her husband and their four children settled in College Station where he became a Marketing professor and in 1968 she received her Master’s degree in Library Science. Her love of books and children sprung to life as she carved out her career at College Hills Elementary School. Summer vacations allowed her to zigzag across the lower forty eight, Hawaii, Europe, and the Bahamas. She appreciated the “travel opportunities” that came when her four children scattered across the country, but not long after retirement, she moved to Georgia to be close to her daughter Karen Thatcher and son Mike Thompson. She made Karen, and Dahlonega, her “Home Plate” – a place to slide into after visiting the families of Mike in Florida, Pat Thompson in Virginia and Rosemary Jeffrey in Oregon. Her determination to always be “on the go” was well documented by her daughters when “mother” refused to understand why a West Texas ice storm should prevent a shopping expedition. During the early years, Juanita rotated through her children’s lives spending holidays and vacations with every family. When health issues kept her grounded, Karen, Mike, and their families provided her with endless hours of love, care and commitment, sprinkled by visits and support from Pat, Rosemary, the spouses, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Each and every member of her family loved her dearly and enhanced her quieter years.

Now, it is time for Juanita to join her parents and brothers, who also started their “next journey” in Rowlett Cemetery. Their arms have reached out to surround her and their collective stories and memories live on through children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Juanita wanted to pass on her personal passions for genealogy, and though her enthusiasm skipped a generation, the grandchildren have taken the torch; they remember her rich stories, songs and tales woven together over the years. In addition, the younger generation has embraced her personal convictions, loving kindness, and commitment to family that has filtered down from the generations before them who were raised in the hills of Greenville, Tennessee. We took mother to many family reunions in Tennessee and at the end of the day, the bagpipers played “Amazing Grace” as they crossed over the hills; we can hear them now, “how sweet the sound…”

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, December 21, 2013, at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Chapel in Allen, Texas. Interment will follow at Rowlett Cemetery in Plano, Texas. The family will receive friends during a visitation one hour prior to the service.