My 2nd Electra Malone

Growing up in my wonderful little town was and continues to be priceless - everyday.  

One of those who added to our history and totally met the priceless aspect was Electra Malone.  Electra was an artist in our little town and she painted watercolors on anything and everything – to include white paper lunch bags for the Rockwall “Friends of the Library”. 

During much of the 1970s the ‘Friends of the Library’ met in the Presbyterian Church (the one on the downtown square) and monthly they hosted a luncheon to raise money for the library.  On those days, the cars would line up around the downtown church and the ladies in town would put on their best ‘bib & tucker’ and enter the church through the side doors.  I was a bit young to be in attendance at the luncheons but I remember the buzz around town when the event was held.  The lunch itself was usually something fabulous created by one of Rockwall’s local chefs (perhaps Nancy Tate from the Goliad House).  The painted paper bags would be placed on the tables to be ‘oohed and awed’ over during the luncheon and at the end of the event they would be grabbed up by the participants and taken home.

Thanks to my Mama, I am the very proud owner of one of those lunch bags – it is Electra’s rendering of a soft pink magnolia blossom (well really I’m not sure it is a magnolia, but I like to think it is).  Sadly, it does not have Electra’s signature – but I know it is one of her paintings, I know she held it, I know she lovingly painted it for the day, I know she willingly and selflessly shared her talent with her neighbors in our little town on the hill.  

Today I got a text from my friend Tommie, telling me I had a surprise coming – then the next text was a picture with that famous signature

I got a little teary when I saw the picture, but so excited – then the next text revealed the picture she was soon to deliver

In her next text Tommie let me know that she liked to think that the people in the photo were Wesley and Laura walking in the backyard at Grandmama’s. :)

How things become priceless – gently moving from ordinary to priceless always amazes me.  To become priceless is to possess that little something extra – but I don’t believe it is an intended act. 

A simple gesture of painting a watercolor on a lunch bag easily and quietly moves from an act of kindness to priceless almost instantly without realization. 

A simple act of seeing an artist rendering, remembering that a friend cherished the artist’s simple paintings, and buying it for her moves to priceless with immediate realization.

“… our key to greatness lies in who we are which we can give to other people in a way 
that when they walk away from us, they are able to say in their hearts 
that they have taken away something with them quite extraordinary.”  
C. JoyBell C.

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Her name was Electra Power Malone and her granddaughter Julia commented “Her enthusiasm rubbed off on everyone around her. I called her simply, "Cita".

Mrs. Malone, 80, died in 1992 … at her Rockwall home. Burial …at Restland Memorial Park. 

Born in Bridgeport, she began her professional career teaching in the Wise County town. She came to Dallas after World War II and started work as a secretary about 1945 for the Veterans Administration. 

During the mid-1950s, Mrs. Malone became executive secretary to IRS Regional Commissioner B. Frank White. She combined her skills and research among other secretaries to write The Secretarial Link in the Management Chain, a handbook used by government agencies nationwide and translated into several languages. 

Mrs. Malone later became regional management analysis officer for the IRS. She was the first woman to head the Dallas Federal Business Association and served as chairwoman of the Dallas-Fort Worth Federal Executive Board's Task Force for Women. 

Mrs. Malone studied art at the University of Texas at Austin and North Texas State University. She painted in a realist style and specialized in Southwestern motifs.