Keathley Land Malone

Eloise Keathley Land Malone, age 94, went peacefully to heaven on Saturday morning, December 6, 2014. A beloved wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend, she will be sorely missed by all whose lives she touched in such a loving and caring manner. All who knew her took comfort and inspiration from her strong Christian faith.

She was born on November 8, 1920, in Wilmington, North Carolina, to Eloise Shepard Keathley and Graham Burton Land. Keathley was raised in Rocky Mount, NC, where her father worked for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. After graduating from Rocky Mount High School, she worked at the Kress candy counter and later as a telephone company switchboard operator. She met the love of her life, Roy Clifton “Tim” Malone, also an ACL Railroad employee, who was a patient sharing the same hospital room with her cousin’s friend, whom she went to visit. Keathley and Tim were married at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rocky Mount on August 16, 1942. They lived in Wrightsville Beach, NC; Sumter, SC; and Gastonia, NC, before settling at Tim’s homeplace in Bear Grass in 1948, where they both happily spent the rest of their lives.

Keathley lovingly supported and actively helped Tim in his various endeavors, from helping on the family farm to physically building their home from cedar trees harvested from the homeplace. They were involved with a variety of community and civic activities such as scouting, volunteering at Bear Grass School, supporting their church, growing in their occupations, and pursuing their dreams. Keathley and Tim were committed to nurturing their family in a devout Christian home filled with love, respect, laughter and music.

She and Tim founded and built the Green Acres Family Campground which opened in June 1966. The campground operations and philosophy is still rooted in traditional family values. They diligently worked together until his untimely death in February 1979, and she remained the driving force of the campground for the next 35 years.

Keathley, affectionately known as “Ma Lone,” was a loving mother to her two daughters as they grew up and then to their families, which in her opinion was her most important job. She was dedicated to serving the Church of the Advent in Williamston, as a Sunday school teacher, and a member of the altar guild, vestry, and Episcopal Churchwomen. For over fifty years she was an active member of the Bear Grass Extension and Community Association (the Homemakers), in which she also served as an officer for several decades.

In addition to her parents and her husband, she was preceded in death by her brothers Graham Burton Land. Jr., and Kenneth Leroy Land, and her sisters, Lynnette Land McCreary and Joyce Winstead Scott. She is survived by her sister, Loyce Land Nelms of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, her daughters, Janice and husband, Bob Greene, of her home, and Patti and husband Frank Ganis of Fairfax, Virginia. She also has two loving grandsons, Will Greene, who lives with his wife Diana in Farmville, and Gabriel Ganis of Fairfax, Virginia. Other survivors include twenty one nieces and nephews and their families.

Those who wish may make memorial contributions to the Church of the Advent, PO Box 463, Williamston, NC 27892. Visitation will take place at Biggs Funeral Home in Williamston on Monday evening, December 8 starting at 6:30 pm.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 am on Tuesday, December 9, at the Church of the Advent, 124 West Church Street, Williamston, NC. Interment will immediately follow at the Malone family cemetery across from the Green Acres Family Campground which is located at 1679 Green Acres Road.