Dr. Janet Lorraine Malone, longtime educator and activist and off-again/on-again Nebraska resident, died Wednesday, April 4, 2018, in Lincoln. She was 81.
Dr. Malone was born January 14, 1937, in Waverly, NE, to Frederick Earl and Ruby Edith (Holley) Malone. She was the eighth of nine children.
She graduated from Waverly Consolidated Schools in 1955 and then attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics in 1959. While in college, she worked as a secretary at the Red Poll Cattle Club. Following graduation, she taught home economics in Calloway, NE, Fullerton, NE, and Loveland, CO. She earned a master’s degree in home economics in 1968 from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, then moved to Portales, NM, where she taught at Eastern New Mexico University. Later she worked in Santa Fe for the state of New Mexico, setting up kindergartens in underserved and rural areas. She earned a PhD in home economics-family relations and child development in 1979 from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK. She moved to Stevens Point, WI, in 1981 where she was a professor of human development at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She received an Excellence in Teaching award in 1985 and was named director of the Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Teaching in 1991. She retired from UWSP in 1999 and was named professor emerita upon her retirement.
She moved back to Lincoln in June, 2015.
Dr. Malone was active in and passionate about Democratic politics in both Wisconsin and Nebraska, campaigning for candidates and important causes, registering voters and igniting political interest in many friends and acquaintances. She painted protest posters just weeks prior to her death for the March for Our Lives in Lincoln.
She was also interested in travel, country music, and crafts; and she was a zealous Green Bay Packers and Nebraska Huskers football fan. She was a member of the United Methodist Church.
Dr. Malone was preceded in death by her parents; brothers Maxwell, William, and James Malone; sisters Helen Norris, Marion Whyman, Gwendolyn Stephenson, and Winifred “Fritzie” Kurtzer; sisters-in-law Maxine Malone and Ava Nell Malone, and brothers-in-law Clyde Norris and Collins Whyman; two nephews and a niece.
She is survived by brother and sister-in-law Paul “Bud” and Kip Malone of Boise, ID, sister-in-law Iona Belle Malone of Omaha, NE, brothers-in-law Louis Stephenson of Fort Collins, CO and Harold Kurtzer of Lincoln; 11 nephews and 12 nieces; as well as numerous great- and great-great-nephews and nieces.
A celebration of life will be held at 10:30 a.m., July 6, at Prairie Home United Methodist Church, 5200 N. 148th Street, Lincoln, NE, with a luncheon to follow. The family invites you to dress casually and encourages you to wear red, white, and blue to honor Janet’s love of politics. Following the luncheon, all are invited to the distribution of ashes at Janet’s childhood home at 15825 Alvo Road, Waverly, NE.
Memorials may be made to the St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 600 Wilshire Blvd., Stevens Point, WI 54481.
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