Tammy Malone's Obituary
Tammy Ann Malone, 58, born April 25, 1959, transcended, March 21, 2018. Tammy has cleared the final hurdle after an eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Free of her failed earthly vessel, family and friends will smile as they drive past a high school track field during practice, or upon seeing a young mother still dressed in her work clothes hustling her boys to baseball practice, and think of Tammy. They will feel her spirit in every graceful runner crossing a meadow.Tammy’s passion was mothering, molding and raising three good men. Beloved and devoted mother, sister, aunt, cousin, Tammy loved her boys and cherished the time spent with all of her relatives at family gatherings.She was known and loved by many family, friends and colleagues as a rare, precious soul with the quality of showing up at just the right time where needed, with a word of encouragement, a favor, or a thoughtful gift. She was tough as nails but spread love everywhere. She often said to others embarking on a trip, “Enjoy every minute!”Tammy was a track star in hurdle events at Portage High School in Portage, Pennsylvania, and the first young woman from that school to earn a full college athletic scholarship. At the University of Texas at Austin, she set school, conference and national records. From there, she went on to become a member of the United States Women’s Track team, competing in Russia, Romania and Greece. Were it not for the 1980 boycott of the Moscow Olympics, and an injury late in her career, she likely would have represented the United States in two Olympiads.Tammy’s track exploits were featured in a history of Portage’s first 100 years, “Portrait of a Town” and, in 2010, she was inducted into the Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame.Tammy lived in the present and the future, believed in second chances, and was an amazing mother who always believed in her boys. Wherever they struggled she loved and pushed them, in triumph she smiled and said, “I knew you could do it.”She worked as a teacher in the Dallas Independent School District for several years and then became a pharmaceutical representative, ending her career with AstraZeneca.Tammy’s parents were Harry and Doris Etienne of Portage, PA.Tammy is survived by her three sons, Ryan Edwards, Samuel Malone and Luke Malone of Dallas, Texas, as well as, Samuel and Luke’s father, Dr. Tim Malone.She is also survived by her sister Christine Jeffers and Michelle Minemyer and their husbands Kevin Jeffers and Brad Minemyer, and nieces and nephews, Kiel, Korey, Kolin, Alyssa, Ashley, and Allison.Although her Olympic dreams were never realized, Tammy lived her life with the heart of a champion and always did her best to light the flame of hope and love in everyone she touched.
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