About Gracie

For the first eighteen years of my life I did not like, no I really hated my name. I couldn’t understand for the life of me why my mother named me Gracie when our last name was Allen. Of course, Mother had no idea that at the same time I was growing into a gregarious teen, George Burns and Gracie Allen would become a famous duo in vaudeville. And, how could she have known the sheer angst our identical names would cause me? I often thought, If only Gracie Allen (the original) had been a dignified lady with a touch of class instead of a ditzy blonde who couldn’t say a complete sentence without sounding dumb.

So, I was delighted when, at the tender age of eighteen-almost-nineteen, Joe Malone asked me to marry him. My first thought, well maybe my second thought, was I wouldn’t be Gracie Allen any more.

After a few years of enjoying the sound of Gracie Malone, I finally started appreciating my mother’s choice of names for me. This change of heart came about when I began to comprehend the grace of God. My name, Gracie, would be a constant reminder of how much I need Him and how amazing His grace really is.

I’m not sure exactly what motivated me to become a writer. Maybe it was that desire to escape the ditzy Gracie Allen image. But, I’d like to think it came from a Higher Calling. I know for certain, the urge came early in my life. I can’t even remember a time when I didn’t like the rustle of paper, the smell of crayons and ink, the satisfaction of recording my thoughts in a diary or journal, and the great joy of knowing, at least to me and my friends, that my writings made sense. Even though I started early, it wasn’t until after Joe and I had packed up our last kid and sent him off to college that I mailed something I’d written to a magazine. I wondered if, just maybe, they’d be interested in publishing it. They were! (There’s life after kids!).

My first article came out in Moody Magazine in 1994. Since then, my work’s been published several times in Moody, and in other well-known magazines including Discipleship Journal, Decision, Live, Women Alive, Christian Parenting Today, Home Life, Celebrate Life, and The Virtuous Woman. One of my articles won the “Best Article” award at the 1997 Florida Christian Writer’s Conference. Remember what I said about God’s grace?