Marcia Malone Slaven (born Margaret Marcia Malone) passed away peacefully at Mon Health Medical Center in Morgantown after a short illness on Dec. 19, 2022. She was born on July 17, 1932, in Grafton, to her parents, Paul E. Malone and Margaret N. Malone. She married Maynard D. Slaven in 1958 and is the mother of two sons: Michael Duane Slaven and Christopher Stuart Maynard “Chip” Slaven. She was Roman Catholic.
Marcia was a proud graduate of Grafton High School in 1950 and a 1954 graduate of the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy at a time when few females entered the profession. Her fellow classmates and professors praised her perspicacity and intelligence. She was a proud sorority sister of the Iota Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity and made lifelong friendships with her sorority sisters. After matriculation, she returned to Grafton to her family business, Malone’s Drug and Chemical Company, founded by her father, Paul E. Malone. Upon his sudden death in her early 20s, she took over many of his responsibilities, eventually becoming the store manager, chief pharmacist and an inspiration to her employees and customers for the next three decades.
The drugstore was an iconic institution in Grafton and operated on the premise that service to the community, not profit, was the highest duty of professional health practitioners. Under her supervision, the store filled its 1,000,000th prescription in the 1960s and continued as a viable entity for more than 50 years. Malone’s was a well-known meeting place in Grafton. In the 1960 presidential election, Robert F. Kennedy chose to campaign at the Irish-Catholic family store’s soda fountain. When the economy in Grafton hit its lowest ebb in the 1970s and early 1980s, Marcia, along with her husband, Maynard D. Slaven, kept the doors open for as long as their resources allowed. They delivered free medications to all their patients, even for those without capacity to pay, taking the losses on themselves as part of a sacred responsibility to the community and the obligations of their profession. She and her husband Maynard also operated the Medical Arts Pharmacy in Morgantown in the late 1970s into the early 1980s.
Following the store’s closure, Marcia was the longest-serving pharmacist in charge at Grafton City Hospital, a multiple-decades long record that is unlikely to be equaled. She wrote, along with Maynard, the drug formulary for the institution, a massive undertaking that gave instructions for drugs approved for patients. During her decades of service to the hospital, she also served as a clinical instructor for the WVU College of Pharmacy and guided many future professionals through the processes of checking for medication errors, preparing hyperalimentation (artificial nutrition) treatments, and handling toxic chemotherapy preparations. She was, by all accounts, a consummate teacher and a detail-oriented but sympathetic instructor.
Marcia was active in the community and a vocal advocate of women’s rights who championed the role of business and professional women in north-central West Virginia from the 1950s until her death. She was involved in many local organizations, such as the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the International Mother’s Day Shrine Board of Trustees and many others. She helped organize the Mother’s Day Tea, a Grafton tradition, and founded the institution’s annual Constitution Day address, which included nationally known speakers such as presidential scholar Dr. Robert DiClerico to deliver a memorable address on the presidency. The Mother’s Day Shrine recognized her special contributions to the organization in a surprise announcement during a Mother’s Day service noting her contribution to the organization and reading a tribute to her with words written about her value as a mother that was written by her two sons.
Marcia was a beloved family member and caretaker, who gave support to anyone who needed it, advice to those in need of counsel and love to everyone she encountered. Her beloved Aunt Elizabeth Niland “Diddy” lived under her care the final years of her life, as did her own mother. She was the safe port for any storm that her family experienced. She is survived by her brother, Dr. Paul F. Malone, M.D. (wife Jane Temple Malone); brother-in-law, Carl “Ted” Glaser; son, Michael Slaven (wife Kristina Olson); son, Chip Slaven; cousin, Gene Niland (wife Dee), cousin, Mary Pat Niland Dzielak (husband Don); and a grandson, Lee Michael Slaven. Surviving nieces and nephews include Carl Theodore “Teddy” Glaser, Molly Malone Peterson (husband Erich), Matthew Malone (wife Sarah), Carey Malone Payne (husband Todd), Ben Malone and Megan Malone Ritter, widow to her late nephew Paul E, Malone. She was predeceased by her mother, Margaret Niland Malone; sister, Emily Glaser, and husband Maynard; her namesake niece, Marcia Glaser; as well as her beloved nephews, Paul E. Malone and Paul Glaser and his wife Amy Peters Glaser.
Family and friends will be received at Bartlett Funeral Home, from 4-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 28, and from 9-11 a.m., the hour of the funeral, on Thursday, Dec. 29, with Father Babu Joseph officiating. Interment will follow at Woodsdale Memorial Park. Bartlett Funeral Home is honored to serve the Slaven family.
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www.bartlettfuneralhomewv.com
