MARIE MOOSSY MALOUF

The gift of years was not wasted on Marie Malouf, who died peacefully at the age of 92 in her home in Dallas on April 26, 2020, in the presence of the family who loved her. Writing her own script of relevance, Marie became an icon of aging well, a model of the fullness of life, and a respected source of wisdom for her children, grandchildren, and friends “who would have walked on hot coals” for her. Every decade of her long life provided evidence that those who sow generously, reap generously.

Marie Louise Moossy Malouf was born in Shreveport, LA, on November 11, 1927, to Rose Ferris and John Moossy. When Rose was widowed at a young age, Marie and her three siblings, John, Louis, and Selma, were raised in an apartment over their mother’s grocery store. A testament to their mother is that all four siblings achieved advanced degrees. Marie’s undergraduate degree was in Home Economics and Fashion Design from Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio, TX, and her master’s degree was in Guidance and Counseling from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, TX. As part of big Lebanese clans in Shreveport, Marie witnessed how weaker links of the family called forth the power of the stronger links, and how over time everyone stepped up. She would eventually become the matriarch of just such a tight-knit and supportive family, proud of its Lebanese heritage.

Marie married Edward J. Malouf in Dallas on July 28,1949, a decorated WWII combat veteran and a student at SMU, Ed went into the apparel business and the couple settled in the Casa View neighborhood of Dallas. Ed and Marie made a prenuptial agreement: the first to leave took the kids. Since there were nine, the marriage endured. Ed agreed to raise the children Catholic, subsidizing at least one classroom at three Catholic schools: St. Pius X, Bishop Lynch High School, and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

As the decades passed, Marie and Ed’s village grew as many of their offspring married, had their own children, and settled in the city. When their names changed to Mimi and PawPaw, they moved from Casa View to North Dallas, neighbors to two sons and their families. One did not have to be kin to belong to the village of Malouf. Marie had the heart space to serve in loco parentis to a tenth child and to fold others into her already sizable family. Once anyone was drawn into this magnetic clan, it was for a lifetime. Amie, Paul, Stephen, Monica, Wayne, Rosanne, Marcellene, Louis, Peter, and Toni witnessed how their parents welcomed diverse people, accepted everyone as they were, and continued to give generously.

Generosity often came in the form of Lebanese dinners around the same dining room table where Marie’s family had gathered in Shreveport. Any occasion prompted the ceremonial rituals of rolling grape leaves and shaping meat pies. Marie hosted meals where kibbee, tabouli, hummus, meat pies, and grape leaves were served to the uninitiated who always sought a second invitation. A surplus of guests resulted in a surplus of food and multiple spirited conversations. In the early years, Marie reigned in the kitchen, whereas in recent years, she reigned over gatherings from a recliner at son Wayne’s house. Still just as influential.

A woman ahead of her time, Marie was able to bridge two realms, one professional and the other in the home. Fashion designer, teacher, counselor, human resource executive, and school administrator, she always dressed the part. In the early years, she designed top selling dresses and fittingly operated a maternity shop. In her later years, she led personnel reforms in education at the Diocese of Dallas. She did not want all her accomplishments listed in her obituary, because that was, as she said, “boring.” Suffice it to say, if she were a painting, she would not have been a still life.

Although circumstances cast Marie in the role of housewife, she thought the term was far too limiting. This multi-dimensional woman recognized all the work love has to do in the world and set about to do her part. As a young woman, she belonged to the Panel of American Women, beginning a lifetime of championing women. Because education was always a top priority, she supported Catholic schools at all levels as well as the Athena Foundation for teachers founded by friend, Dr. Dona Gower. If children were the beneficiaries, such as Jonathan’s Place in Dallas or Empower African Children in Uganda, Marie was a zealous supporter. In George Bernard Shaw’s words, Marie Malouf did not want to live life as a candle, but rather “as a splendid torch that would burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to the next generation.”

Marie Malouf’s real genius was her ability to recognize the unique gifts of everyone. She encouraged everyone to set high standards—often that included law school—and if they needed help reaching their goals, she had a footstool. She was a model for her children and her 26 grandchildren to live lives of service as overflowing in rich experiences as her own. Her nine great grandchildren will be inspired to achieve by the stories the clan will tell.

When someone was ill, Marie sought the intercession of St. Charbel of Lebanon, often sharing his relic with the afflicted family. When cancer caught Marie off guard, her relic was returned. Ed “Paw Paw” Malouf will use his remaining days to brag about his wife’s accomplishments as he has these many years.

Marie practiced the art of re-gifting until everything of value was dispersed in her own lifetime. Instead of flowers, her family hopes you re-gift something of value, donate to a local food bank, or support the Marie and Ed Malouf Scholarship Fund at Bishop Lynch High School.

Written by Peggy Marrin.

EDWARD J. MALOUF

Edward J. Malouf was a charter member of the Greatest Generation and the loving patriarch of a large clan. Born on December 11, 1925, in Ogden, UT, to Maggie Giles and Edward Malouf, he died on June 21, 2021, at his home in Dallas, surrounded by his family and over 500 American flags that had been placed in his front yard in recent days by family, friends and kind strangers to honor his military service in both World War II and the Korean War. In March of 1944, one year after his family moved to Dallas and following his graduation from Highland Park High School, Ed was drafted by the U.S. Army and assigned as a mortar-man to Company B in the 78th Infantry Division. Before the year was out, the 78th would be baptized by fire during the grueling Battle of the Bulge, singled out by Winston Churchill as “the greatest American battle of the war”. Of the 184 men in Company B, 102 would be killed or wounded, including Ed, who was patched up in a field hospital and sent back to his damp, log-covered foxhole under the deep snow on the front line. In March of 1945, this Purple Heart recipient was among the first troops to cross the Rhine River at the Bridge at Remagen.

Calculating that he had earned less than a nickel an hour in the Army, when the war ended Ed enrolled at Southern Methodist University (SMU) to improve his earning potential. After obtaining a degree in Business and finishing ROTC, he enlisted in the United States Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant and became an agent for the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) with a top security clearance. Once asked why he enlisted in the Air Force instead of going back into the Army, he remarked, “because they had better food than the Army”.

The seven years of Ed’s military service had an outsized influence on his life. It culminated in his decades-long effort to get his former commander, Lieutenant John Robinson, recognized for heroism during that deadly winter of 1944 in the Heurtgen Forest. Despite being hospitalized for his injuries, Robinson never received a Purple Heart; so in 2008, after Ed’s unsuccessful campaign, he tracked down his former officer and handed over his own Purple Heart.

While a student at SMU, Ed met Marie Moossy of Shreveport, LA, and married her on July 28, 1949. Ed went into the family’s apparel business and eventually started his own company. The couple settled in the Casa View neighborhood of Dallas, quickly outgrowing their starter home as their nine children were born.

Accepting and magnanimous, Ed and Marie opened their hearts to a tenth adopted child, and their bountiful love spilled over to the neighbors in “Little Vatican”. Their children Amie, Paul, Stephen, Monica, Wayne, Rosanne, Marcellene, Louis, Peter and Toni, learned tolerance, generosity and resilience. Ed and Marie showed them how each generation assumes responsibility for the next, and how no problem is insurmountable if imagination and family resources are combined. Prioritizing education for the ten, Ed and Marie became active founding members of St. Pius X and later Bishop Lynch High School, where a scholarship was established in their name. Ed had unswerving loyalty to anyone welcomed into his ever-widening circle and took every opportunity to praise them. No one, however, received more praise than Marie, his accomplished wife of seventy years. Coming in second place was Ed’s best friend, Warren Mallard.

Ed and Marie’s generosity expanded far beyond their neighborhood. For example, after a chance meeting with a Lithuanian woman in a Moscow airport, son Stephen arranged for her husband’s heart valve surgery in Dallas. Following the heart operation, Kestutis Sauliunas and his wife Jane recuperated for three weeks at Ed and Marie’s home. Returning home, the Lithuanian couple erected a cross on The Hill of Crosses in Šiauliai in the Maloufs’ honor. So moved by the experience, Ed wrote a song about The Hill of Crosses for Voice of America.

While his wife was outgoing, Ed was more of a behind-the-scenes influencer, who embraced the many causes of his ever-expanding clan with devotion and wit. Family celebrations, of which there were many, often occasioned an original poem or a duet of “My Way”-- but sung together as “Our Way”. Ed also submitted satirical poems ,written under the pseudonym of the Phantom Poet, to friend Alex Burton, a Dallas broadcaster, to read aloud on KRLD. National or local politicians who fell from grace were awarded an “eggs-acting” Pullet Surprise. A lover of words, Ed peppered his writings with “eximious” Latin derivations and various homonyms.

Ed came to be known as PawPaw, a name awarded to him by his first-born grandson, Bobby Malouf. The title perfectly suited a man with a soft spot in his heart for children and dogs. At family parties, he filled the washing machine with sodas, perfected Orange Whammies, hired a pony to cart little ones up and down the alley, entertained everyone by riding a bicycle while facing backwards on the handlebars, and bought hot dogs so the canines had treats, too. He had a sign on his office door that read, “Dogs welcome, people tolerated”. When Molly Marrin, daughter of close family friends, started coaching, PawPaw became the Honorary Coach of the Regis University Women’s Basketball Team and the inspiration for another scholarship. He always said that one of his greatest joys was seeing his grandkids do to their parents what his kids had done to him and Mimi, and he was quick to point out, “there were ten of them and only two of us”. As he mentored new generations of 26 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren, PawPaw was a model of how investing deeply and remaining loyal to those you love was the ticket to a rich and fulfilling life.tion text goes here