Columnist Susan Snyder: Pioneer spirit lives in Malone

Monday, Feb. 9, 2004 | 8:17 a.m.

There aren't many people who could turn five dozen Hummers and a 13-year-old stint as Ely's mayor into a major fund-raiser for a Las Vegas charity.

But Jo Ann Malone is the woman to do it. The executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas last week unveiled plans for the first Great Basin Hummer Happening, which happens from June 11-13 in Ely.

The event includes a poker run on the drive up, a ride on Ely's Ghost Train, a visit to Great Basin National Park and a lot of opportunities to take the Hummers on approved dirt roads.

"Driving a Hummer isn't like driving a minivan," Malone said. "People will learn to know their vehicles better. They're going to learn everything about their vehicles."

And they'll learn a fair amount about rural Nevada while raising money for the Ronald McDonald House -- two goals that sit close to Malone's heart.

Malone loves Las Vegas, but she also appreciates the challenges and attributes of Nevada's outer reaches.

As mayor of Ely from 1991 to 1995, Malone led a charge to prevent state officials from closing the minimum-security prison camps across Nevada's interior -- including the one in Ely.

The camps provided jobs for the locals, and their inmates performed municipal services and maintenance the surrounding towns couldn't afford to buy. When state officials announced budget cuts that would close the camps, Malone lured them to Ely to meet the residents and talk with the inmates.

It worked. The camps survived the budget cuts.

The odd journey that brought Malone to Henderson, then Ely, then Carson City and, finally, back to Las Vegas started in Missouri in 1990.

She and her husband had been married two years when he told her he'd landed a state prison job in Ely. She recalled sitting in their home and poring over a Nevada map.

"I remember trying to measure how many miles to Las Vegas it was," Malone said.

The state then switched the job to one in Jean. So the couple packed everything they owned into a U-Haul. With a 6-month-old daughter, a 2-year-old son and $700 to their name, they drove to her parents' home in Henderson.

"When we got there we found out that Gov. (Bob) Miller froze all state hiring as we were driving across country, and my husband didn't have a job," Malone recalled.

But nothing stops determined pioneers -- even the modern ones who arrive by U-Haul.

He worked security at two hotels, and she worked at Kmart. They scrimped and saved everything, hoping to hang on until better jobs came along. They got wind of a job opening in Ely's prison and couldn't move up there fast enough, Malone said.

She worked at Ely's Copper Queen Restaurant in the evenings and worked at a domestic violence shelter during the day.

"We were 250 miles from any family. It was freezing cold and we were so isolated up there," Malone said, recalling the incident more for herself than anyone. "How did we do it?"

Wait. It gets worse.

Eight months after the Malones settled in Ely, residents recalled their U.S. Constitution-toting mayor of 18 months. City Council members had to appoint a new mayor until the June election.

So Malone applied. She had college degrees in political science and criminal justice and had interned in the Missouri Senate and House.

She also was nine months pregnant. The memory of the City Council's vote still makes her laugh.

"The night of the City Council meeting, I waddled up there to the podium," she said. "I gave them my resume. I gave them a full presentation."

And won by a 4-1 vote. When the June election rolled around, she won that too.

Toward the end of her term Malone was appointed deputy secretary of state in charge of elections, a job that took her to Carson City for the six months it lasted.

In 1996 she accepted a job with the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Las Vegas, where she worked until becoming Ronald McDonald House executive director. Feb. 16 marks her fifth anniversary there.

For all her accomplishments, Malone said being Ely's mayor is the highlight.

"I was never so proud of anything outside of my family," she said.

The rural dream is possible to anyone with an open mind and pioneer's spirit.

"You have to pay your dues," Malone said. "They want to see that you will do whatever it takes to make it, and that you're going to stay and do it right."

For information on June's Hummer event call Malone, 252-4663, or Lana Garceau at Towbin Hummer, 253-7000.