John Wesley Malone, son of Rev. J. D. and Mrs. Mary Malone, was born In Atlanta, Ga., July 10,1856. His father was a local Methodist preacher in South Carolina. His mother was Scotch-Irish, and a native of Tennessee. She was a Presbyterian until she married a Methodist preacher, when she went with him to his church. The subject of this sketch was educated at Hiwassee College and Vanderbilt University. In 1 885 he went to Mississippi and served the Byhalia and Victoria Circuit as a supply until the meeting of the North Mississippi Conference that year, when he was admitted on trial under the presidency of Bishop R. K. Hargrove. He completed the course oi study in regulation time, and was ordained an elder at Holly Springs, Miss., in 1899 by Bishop Charles B. Galloway.

He was married to Miss Lillian Kemp, of Holly Springs, June 15, 1887. Eight children were born to them, seven of them surviving as follows: Dr. Kemp Malone, of Baltimore; Dr. Dumas Malone, of Washington, D. C.; Miles S. Malone, of Princeton, N. J.; Mrs. David Wilson, of Minneapolis, Minn.; Miss Elizabeth Malone, of New Orleans; Mrs. Roger Sharpe, of New Orleans; and Miss Virginia Malone, of Duke University, Durham, N . C. John Wesley Malone, Jr., died years ago. The highest educational advantages were given these sons and daughters, as they graduated with honors from the first universities of the land. The youngest daughter Is now at Duke University.

In the North Mississippi Conference Brother Malone served the following charges: Early Grove Circuit, 1886; Kosciusko, 1887-8; Minter City, 1889-90; Hernando and Coldwater, 1891-2-3; Como and McGhee,1894. During the summer of 1894 he was elected president of Grenada College, where he served five sessions. In the summer of 1899, he resigned to take charge of the Woman's College in Oxford, Miss., where he remained for three sessions. In the fall of 1902, he returned to the pastorate, and was sent to Brunswick, Ga., in the South Georgia Conference, where he remained for four years. He served Cuthbert but six months when he was elected president of Andrew College and served there for twelve years. From Andrew he came to Centenary College, Cleveland, Tenn., and w.is transferred to Holston Conference. Here he served for nine years under difficulties many and formidable, but with fidelity and the confidence of everybody.

A severe siege of malarial fever at Oxford, Miss., came near proving his undoing. Mrs. Malone thinks that he never full y recovered from this attack, although he sought a change of climate in Georgia, and finally in the hills of Holston. His outstanding achievements as a Methodist preacher were, perhaps, "putting Grenada College on the map," as a friend says it; erecting a church at Brunswick; reestablishing Andrew College, erecting a new building, providing for debt, starting an endowment, and making the institution a standard Junior College. His work amongst us here in Holston was of high grade and won him the esteem of all. The writer was a classmate of Brother Malone at Vanderbilt University, and his pastor for a year at Cleveland, which explains the authorship of this memoir. There was never a breath against the Christian character of John Wesley Malone. He loved the church, the work of Christian education, the fellowship of his brethren, and the extension of the Master's kingdom. His devotion to his fine family, and his sacrificial determination to give each one of his sons and daughters the best possible education, were known to those about him.

His last year in active service was as a pastor at Rural Retreat, Va., and was one of the happiest of his life. Surrounded by devoted people, he and his wife commenced life over, as it were, and were serene and satisfied in their little bungalow parsonage home. Serious heart trouble broke into the contentment of the circle. When the physician told him that he could no longer take work, he broke down and wept. He was given the superannuate' s relation in 1928. They moved back to Cleveland, Tenn. For two years he bore patiently with his failing health, and was finally taken to a hospital there, where he lingered for three months. One of the last things he said was, as he pointed up, "I, John W. Malone, white through the Holy Spirit, and used of the Lord." His good wife says that "he was indeed white in body, mind and spirit, he had been washed and cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, and the Lord had used him." He died Sunday morning, August 17, 1930.

Funeral services were held from our church at Cleveland by Rev. J. Earl Gilbreath, assisted by Dr. W. S. Neighbors, of St. Elmo, and Dr. M. P. Carico, of the Sweetwater District. The people paid loving tribute to his memory. Another service was held in Grenada, Miss., by Dr. Countiss, and the dead was buried by the side of the namesake, John W. Malone, Jr. The two Johns—father and son—are sleeping together after a separation of thirty-four years,

Mrs. Malone is now living with her daughter, Miss Elizabeth, "keeping house" in New Orleans.

Submitted By: James A. Burrow – Holston Conference Journal – 1930 – PP: 89 - 91