Edna Malone acknowledges she has had some struggles in her life, but there have been success stories as well.
Malone lost one of her children, Dale Doster, to a vehicle accident in 1979 when he was just nine years old. There have been issues with marriages as well.
On the other hand, her daughter, Jennifer, is her main success story, overcoming a severe case of COVID-19 with a lung transplant in 2022.
Five grandchildren and a great-grandchild are another high point in Malone’s life. Jennifer is married to Darren Willis and has two children, while her other son, Dan Doster, 50, is married, and he and his wife, Leah, have three daughters.
“My family, and sports, and my faith and belief is what’s gotten me through, been a big part of, still is a big part of my life,” Malone said last week. “I’ve always had faith, but in recent years, it’s deepened and stronger now.”
Malone grew up on Howard Roberts Road, where she lives still today. She was the youngest of five girls and two boys.
“I’m the baby of the family. They used to tell me that I was spoiled, and of course I told them, ‘Well, y’all did it,’” said Malone, the youngest of the group by eight years.
“Mother had to work, and my sisters did raise me,” she recalled. “Wherever they went, they always had to carry me with them, like to the skating rink that was here in Gray, and we used to go up to the Ocmulgee River and swim in it. It’s a wonder I didn’t drown being there with teenagers, but they took care of me.”
Malone attended Jones County schools, graduating in 1965. She was an athlete and loved sports, particularly basketball. The modest 78-year-old didn’t mention until later her achievements.
“I still hold the scoring record for Jones County,” she said. “I shot 25 of 37 field goals and 12 of 13 free throws for 62 points. It was in January of 1964.”
After graduating from high school, Malone worked for a short time with Southern Bell then the Macon hospital, first as an administrative assistant and then in the purchasing department. She married Ray Doster in 1967 and accompanied him to Germany for close to two years when he joined the Army.
Communication was not the issue one might expect, according to Malone.
“So many of the Germans spoke English, and I learned enough German to shop and communicate, and to count my money,” Malone explained.”
To occupy her time, Malone started with a sport she knew.
“I would go up to the gym on the base and shoot some basketball,” she reminisced. “And, I took karate from a black-belt Hawaiian. I mean, it was something to do.”
The instructor opened more doors for Malone.
“He decided to get up a volleyball team,” she said. “So he got a bunch of us, and we had us a volleyball team. We played against the German teams. I never played organized volleyball before, so I really enjoyed that. And,” Malone added, “the German team asked two of us Americans to play on their team and travel with them.
“I did that,” she said. “I didn’t really know those people, but, back then you trusted people more than I would today. I don’t think I would do that now.”
Malone and Doster divorced after nine years, and she later married Randy Murphy. Jennifer was born in 1981. Forty years later, she was married to Willis and had two children when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
“She had COVID, and it destroyed her lungs,” Malone recalled. “That was the strand in ’21 that … I mean, those months that I was up at the hospital with her, I saw way too many body bags. I mean, pretty much daily.”
Willis was initially in the hospital in Macon. “She was airlifted to the Mayo Clinic when Mayo accepted her for a lung transplant,” Malone said. The patient remained on a ventilator until late December.
“They took her off the ventilator December 22nd, just took her off of it to see how she could breathe on her own,” Malone said.
The next day the doctor talked to them about her going home.
“And she and I both looked at each other like, no, I mean, we’re here, we feel safe. And we just told him, not that we didn’t want to go home, but we were scared to.” With the doctor’s assurances, however, they said ok.
“So we came home on Christmas Eve that year. Only Darren and one other person knew it, that we were coming home.
“That was a great Christmas present for a lot of people, not just family, but friends and the community of Gray because they were so good to us.”
The visit lasted about three weeks.
“We stayed until probably about the middle of January,” Malone said. “And whatever testing they were doing, I’m not sure, but they told her that things weren’t going to improve, that she needed to come back and be on the transplant list. So, that’s what we did. And she got the call.”
The lung transplant surgery in February was successful.
“She’s doing great,” Malone said. “It’s a new normal. I mean, you take a lot of medications, but she’s enjoying her family.”
Meanwhile, listening to Malone’s account of her life post-Doster, it is clear she has remained active, both athletically and otherwise.
“In 1986, I had been working at a frame shop in Macon, and I had back surgery,” she recalled. “And while I was out with back surgery, a good friend of mine that worked at the frame shop encouraged me to do this out of my home. So in December of ’86, I set up, and I had been doing picture framing at a shop in my backyard since then.”
Circumstances led to a cutback in that endeavor, and she hasn’t continued at the same level.
“I didn’t do anything for over a year or so when I was Jennifer’s caregiver. Since I’ve been back home, I’m just not into it like I was, but I still do a very limited framing.”
While that part of Malone’s life may have been limited, another aspect was not. She enjoyed recreation for some 30 years, and she was a regular participant in different sports in different roles.
“I played my first organized softball at 19 years old,” Malone shared. “I started playing when I worked for the telephone company. Jones County didn’t have anything for women then.”
When she left the telephone company, Malone played for another team at Central City Park. “That was something I really enjoyed.”
While she could not recall her batting average for all those years, Malone does know she could hit, and run, leading to home runs.
“I could hit, and I was fast then. I never hit a homer over a fence. But,” Malone added with a smile, “I could hit it over the outfielders’ heads and run the bases before they could get the ball in.”
The athletic woman was also able to enjoy her other sport for several years as well.
“I played basketball in the recreation department in Warner Robins, because even Bibb County didn’t have it for women, but Warner Robins did. I played basketball until I was 30,” she stated.
Malone was active in recreational sports in Jones County for many years as a board member, coach, and umpire.
“I coached girls softball.
And I umpired. I umpired many a game, and that was still being involved with sports. I enjoyed that probably about 30 years.”
Malone was still playing softball in Macon during those years, but there came a time when she decided to go out on a positive note.
“I played softball and coached until I was 50 years old,” Malone reminisced, “and I decided I was healthy. I decided that it was just time to step back, and I did.”
Since that change in routine, about 28 years ago, Malone says she has lived pretty much a normal life. She has done some traveling, including cruises, trips out West and on the East Coast. She is a member of Clinton Methodist Church, and she participates in Jones County Pilot Club activities.
“I’ve enjoyed being in that and doing a lot of community service with the Pilot Club. It’s a good group of ladies. Jones County has a real good active, high-membership chapter.”
Malone and Murphy parted ways in 2017, and she has no plans to marry again.
“No, no desires,” she said without hesitation.
“I’ve been divorced eight years now, and I haven’t even been on a date. That’s not bothering me. I have friends. I have a lot of family. I have 12 nieces that I spend a good bit of time with traveling, doing stuff.”
Malone noted she was 70 when she and Murphy divorced.
“It’s the first time I’ve lived by myself, and there are lonesome days,” she acknowledged. “But it’s not bad. It’s better being lonely by yourself than being lonely living with somebody. There is a difference.
“But you don’t just sit there and dwell on things.
I mean, the things I have been through in my life, if I didn’t have faith and believe in God … and people that don’t, I don’t see how they make it, I really don’t. It’s just what life gives you sometimes.”
