Recalled as tireless worker; staff ‘heartbroken’

Fayette County Elections Superintendent Margaret Malone died unexpectedly Sunday morning, on the eve of the 8 a.m. start to the early voting period for the July primary election.

Malone, 59, worked 22 years for Fayette County government, holding positions including county clerk, personnel officer and finance officer.

Noted as a hard worker never too busy to stop what she was doing to help a candidate or the public, Malone led her staff with what workers called a “roll up her sleeves” mentality.

In that same spirit, election employees met in the office just hours after her death Sunday to figure out how they will handle the election without their beloved leader.

Monday morning, they had to put aside their grief as best they could, but elections worker Brenda Mann said the citizens of Fayette County shouldn’t worry: the staff will make sure the election is handled appropriately.

Retired Elections Superintendent Carolyn Combs, who had been working part-time in the office, has agreed to serve as the interim superintendent through the November elections. Combs retired last year, and several former employees have returned to volunteer to help the staff through the current election.

Combs noted that she had felt very comfortable about turning over the reins to Malone.

“We are just truly heartbroken over her loss as a friend, really, and a coworker,” Combs said. She recalled Malone as being very conscientious, and “an outstanding person who had good character.”

County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn noted that the county office got a number of positive remarks from citizens about how pleasant Malone was when helping them.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen any other county employee work harder,” Dunn said.

“She gave of herself,” said elections employee April Crosby. “She’d do anything for anybody. She had a heart of gold.”

Brenda Mann said she felt Malone was looking over the elections staff and is proud of them for trudging onward with the taxing duty of administering the election. Mann and Crosby said they both felt like Malone was their sister, not just their supervisor.

Mann said the modest Malone wouldn’t allow her staff to nominate her for a statewide elections award. But Malone’s knowledge of election law and guidelines was impressive, Mann added.

Crosby said someone asked Malone recently how she handled the stress the job entails.

“She said she just relies on the Lord and she just gives it to him,” Crosby recalled.

Malone had worked seven days a week for the past 10 weeks, several of her employees noted.

Combs said Malone had a wonderful sense of humor just in the way she told stories, a way that always seemed to make Combs laugh. Combs also noted that when she came into the office Monday morning, Malone had everything ready to the point where Combs could come in and do what she needed to do.

“She put in a lot of hours at this job, and she took it very seriously. She’s really going to be missed,” Combs said.

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