Mable Frances Shenkir Loika Malone

1925 - 2010

Mable Malone, 84, passed away Monday, June 7, 2010. Service: 3:30 p.m. Friday in Greenwood Chapel. Private graveside service: Greenwood Memorial Park. Mable was born Aug. 17, 1925, to Charlie and Frances Shenkir Loika in Eureka, Calif. At 2 months of age, when her mother passed away, Mable was sent to Louis and Julia Loika in Ballinger, where she was raised. Her family spoke only Czech, and the elementary school was a one-room rural schoolhouse. She graduated from Ballinger High School a year early and was a talented musician. At the age of 17, having never been away from home, at a time when most people stayed on the farm, and having never seen the ocean, she traveled by train to Galveston, where she became a registered nurse and a member of the Army Nursing Corps of Cadets. As a practicing RN, Mable was the youngest charge nurse ever at John Sealy Medical Center in Galveston. There she met and married James D. Malone, M.D. They eventually settled in Fort Worth where they raised four children. Mable retired from nursing, but often took nursing shifts at the Colonial National Invitational Golf Tournament - to the delight of her children. Her life revolved around her children, and she was a leader of both Cub Scout troops and Brownie/Girl Scouts. An active swim team and horse show mom, she also hosted countless sleepovers and ferried the canoes for scores of Brazos River trips and campouts. Mable and James Malone ran a working cattle ranch in Bosque County, and attended Ranch Management at TCU. She also participated in the hunting trips at the ranch and always cooked the bounty. She was an active member of the Tarrant County Medical Auxiliary and Medical Dames. Superior at card games and dominoes, she delighted in besting her grandchildren, all Mensa eligible, especially at double solitaire. An avid bridge player, she played penny-ante bridge once a week for 50 years, mostly with the same friends. A jar filled with pennies sits on her desk. A wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and friend, she was a mentor to countless children and teenagers in the Fort Worth area. Fiercely proud of her Moravian/Czech heritage, she was a strongly spiritual person, although not a traditional churchgoer. Last week she said with her knowing smile, "It has been a good life." And indeed, it has. She will be loved and missed dearly by all. Mable was preceded in death by one son, Michael James Malone, and her husband and companion of almost 60 years, James D. Malone, M.D. Survivors: Children, Susan Mary Malone, Donald Walter Malone, M.D., and Gary Louis Malone, M.D.; daughters-in-law, Diann Griffith Malone and Susan Gentry Malone; and grandchildren, Sally Amanda Malone, Jill Suzanne Malone, Nicholas Donald Malone and Mitchell Connor Malone.