Passages: Jerry Malone
Gerald Kenneth Malone
November 28, 1940 - April 28, 2026
I know everyone is familiar with people who are said to have a twinkle in their eye, a term to describe someone with an animated, bright look and personality that conveys warmth, playfulness or joy, a person blessed with a youthful spirit and a good-natured disposition.
If you knew Jerry Malone, as hundreds of Sun City Anthem residents did, could you describe him any better than that?
In cooperation with Moira, Jerry’s beloved wife of 54 years, we’ll tell the story of a man who had a zest for life and spread happiness in everything he did, but first we must share the sad part.
At the time of Jerry’s death, he was working for Club Demonstration Services, popularly known as CDS, a company that handles food samplings at Costco stores throughout the nation. He was working at the nearby St. Rose Costco, and one reason he loved that job was that it kept him engaged with people, especially so many of those who knew him from his earlier years working in Anthem Center. This reporter was one of those who always looked for Jerry so I could say hello whenever Roz and I visited that store.
Jerry suffered from kidney cancer, which he worked hard to control. But after his cancer took an unexpected progression, he had to stop working for the last time.
His last day at work was on April 10, just two or three days after I last saw him at the store. One week later, he went into the hospital with pneumonia for the third time in two months, the pneumonia caused by a side effect of his cancer medication.
By April 22, Jerry decided that he was done with his fight. His medication caused him great pain, and he simply did not want to continue with it. He decided to receive home hospice care and came home on April 22. The next day, as Moira tells it, they had a really great day together, sitting and talking about plans for the future. In fact, Jerry was getting up and down from his chair to strengthen his legs for his anticipated return to work for CDS at Costco.
But on April 24, Jerry woke up in great pain and could not get out of bed. Hospice was called and they checked him into their facility where they could administer the pain medications he needed. The medication made him sleep, but thankfully without pain. Moira: “Jerry slept until the early morning of Tuesday, April 28. Then, at 5:28 a.m., he stepped into eternity and the loving arms of his Savior Jesus. Now he is in heaven and meeting old and new friends, making himself useful and, I’m sure, having a very good time.”
Let us not grieve for a man whose life was well lived. Rather, let us share the story of someone who was not a king or a titan of industry, but rather a man who worked hard, always loved what he did, and made everyone around him feel good about themselves, just by being himself.
Gerald Kenneth Malone, to be always known as Jerry, was born in San Francisco on November 28, 1940. His parents were Kenneth Malone and Roberta Kibbe, and he was their first and only child.
He was always a happy and smiling child, who grew into the same as a man.
He grew up in San Jose, CA when it was still a valley filled with fruit trees and called the “Valley of Heart’s Delight.” He picked and cut for drying various fruits to earn money. Prunes, apricots, peaches, and cherries. Throughout his life he was always on the lookout for an apricot that tasted like the ones he dried as a boy. He never again found that wonderful flavor here on earth, but he never gave up trying.
When he was around six years old, his father landed a job as maintenance man in the bottom of the Grand Canyon at the famous Phantom Ranch.
Jerry got to ride down into the Canyon on mules and spend the summer there. He helped his dad clean the swimming pool, which is no longer there because it was washed away by a flash flood.
It was the best summer of his life! Phantom Ranch is a historic, rustic oasis located at the very bottom of the Grand Canyon along Bright Angel Creek. Accessible only by foot, mule, or rafting the Colorado River, it is the only lodging facility below the canyon rim. Advance reservations through their lottery system are strictly required
He was always a very enterprising and busy boy. His first job was selling the Penny Saver advertising paper when he was around seven years old. That led to selling and delivering the San Jose Mercury News paper. He ended up with one weekly and two Sunday routes. Doing that, he met someone who asked if Jerry could mow his lawn. So Jerry bought a push mower, and his stepfather built him a trailer to hook to the back of his bicycle to tow his mower to the jobs he accumulated.
He did that for a few years and then, when he was around 15, a man who owned an auto repair shop and gas station asked if he’d like to work for him. Jerry loved cars and had a few really nice old vehicles.
He also participated in stock-car demolition derbies. If you don’t know what this is, it’s an event where drivers deliberately crash old vehicles into one another in an enclosed dirt track or arena. The goal is to keep your own car running while disabling all other vehicles; the last driver with a functional car is declared the winner and earns a cash prize. Jerry wrecked a few cars there, and he always said that the demolition derby driving taught him how to survive a head-on crash, which actually happened to him in his early twenties. He just held on to the steering wheel and the force of the collision bent it forward with his arms, but he walked away without a scratch.
Jerry enjoyed dating and had a lot of fun in his teen years.
He worked at the auto repair shop for about three years, and then he was hired by a customer to drive a truck and deliver oil products to garages and dealerships in the San Jose and Bay Area. He soon had his own truck and was working on commission for Coast Oil Company, doing that same work.
He was in that business for 48 years until retirement. He was always surprised and delighted that he had never had to interview for a job. Every new job just fell into his lap.
When he was 18, Jerry joined the Naval Reserves and served for six months. He wanted to go on active duty and hoped to train as a cook. He went to San Diego for his induction, but because it was a time of peace and no wars, they did not allow him to go on active duty. He was always a little regretful about that, but he also felt lucky to have had the life he had, which would not have happened if he had served on active duty.
Before meeting Moira, he was married for six years to Penny, a lovely girl he met while she was in college. That marriage was blessed with son Tom and daughter Erin.
Three years after his divorce, Jerry met Moira Jarvis through a mutual friend named Joan, who Jerry was dating at the time. When Jerry and Joan ended the relationship, Jerry asked Joan for Moira’s phone number. He called Moira and invited her to attend a baseball game. It was an Oakland A’s game, the first professional baseball game Moira had ever attended.
That was their first date, and they married the next year on June 3, 1972.
Jerry had a lifelong love of baseball, and had coached Little League. In this photo of Jerry and Moira at an A’s game, it’s just a coincidence that Jerry sort-of resembles Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, who pitched for the A’s from 1987-1995.
The venue for that first date was just the beginning, as they attended many A’s games after they were married.
Jerry and Moira were in each other’s lives for 55 years, and the time flew by.
Retiring in 2006, the Malones moved to Sun City Anthem in July of that year.
Moira and Jerry have done so many fun things together. They took cruises to Hawaii (twice), Alaska (twice), Bermuda, Panama Canal, Eastern Caribbean, California Coast to Vancouver, Disney Cruise from Disney World to Port Canaveral, Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Castaway Cay, and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Their cruise to Vancouver introduced them to their next mode of adventure – electric bicycles! After riding them, Jerry came home determined to get e-bikes, so upon returning from the Vancouver cruise they purchased a pair of Pedego bikes.
Jerry rode his bike to work every day, as well as every other place he could ride it safely. He had loved riding bikes since he was a little kid.
The couple’s bike-riding adventures introduced them to a wonderful group of new friends who love riding too.
Moira and Jerry took trips with them to California, Utah, and all around the Las Vegas Valley, including many rides to the Wetlands, Lake Las Vegas, River Mountain Loop, Boulder City, Henderson, and any other place they could think of going where they could ride their bikes.
Jerry always had a job. He could not stand to sit at home and needed to keep busy and useful to others. When he and Moira moved to Sun City Anthem, the first thing he did was join the Security Patrol, where of course he made many friends and also got to know countless residents through his Patrol work.
December 17 and 18, 2008 were days that will “live in infamy” in Sun City Anthem, because those were the dates of the historic storm that dumped nearly 10 inches of snow on our community. There was a great deal of mayhem in the area, but there were also scenes of beauty that led to this reporter’s earliest collaboration with Jerry, who sent me these photos taken by Moira that I published on my still-young blog:
A little snow —or maybe it was a lot, depending on where you come from— did not stop Jerry from riding his trusty bike to work at Anthem Center.
Speaking of which…
Few things gave Jerry more happiness than when he was hired as a monitor at the fitness facility in Anthem Center, which allowed him to interact with our residents throughout the day. He worked there for about a dozen years, up until Covid hit, making many friends in the Fitness Center. He absolutely loved working there, dressing up for holidays and doing zany things to have fun with members.
In the course of his conversations with new residents visiting the Fitness Center, a little birdie tells this reporter, Jerry was not averse to giving them my blog’s business card and recommending Anthem Journal as a source of news about our community.
There was yet another great passion in Jerry’s SCA life, and that was coordinating our periodic blood drives to help assure that Sun City Anthem played its part in helping to meet the never-ending need for blood among residents of the Las Vegas Valley.
In doing this, he was no longer Jerry Malone. Instead, he became Jerry “Dracula” Malone, with black cape and all, a persona that helped boost our donor participation by putting a humorous face on a critical need and led to SCA being honored as one of the Valley’s top blood-donor partners.
Jerry was involved with the SCA blood drives from 2011-2019, and his recruitment of donors during that period helped collect a total of 3,134 pints of blood. The total went up each of those years, from 61 units of blood in 2011 to 576 units in 2019.
When he left the Fitness Center, he went to work for the owner of the Pedego Bike shop, where he sold and delivered bikes for several years.
Gas prices are high now, but you may remember that we had a previous gas crisis a few years ago with prices even higher than they are at the moment.
E-bikes were a popular solution for many at that time, so much so that Jerry was featured in a news story on local Channel 5:
Over the past years, now 20 and counting, I have had the privilege of sharing the stories of many wonderful Sun City Anthem residents who have left us. In reading about Jerry Malone’s life and his decades of love with Moira, I think you will agree that Jerry holds a unique position among the cherished residents who have made our community a better place, while making us better for having known him.
If you are inclined to remember Jerry via a donation in his memory to a worthy organization, Moira suggests any of the following:
Perhaps Jerry himself might want to be remembered as I last saw him, greeting folks he knew in his own unique way:
Beautifully written!