Mallory was a street sweeper for the city of Middletown for 30 years, and lived above the Anchor Restaurant on Central Avenue. He left behind no family, but plenty of Middletown residents remember Mallory, called “a downtown character” by Ann Mort.
“He was part of the landscape,” said Mort, a former Middletown City Council member. “He was always around. There are people who add to the flavor of the community; he was one of them.”
And his flavor was mostly bubble gum.
Flo Randall, who remembers Mallory passing out gum downtown when she was a sophomore at Middletown High School, called him “a happy-go-lucky guy.”
Mallory’s legacy stretched outside of the city limits. When Donnie Owens, a retired Middletown police officer, was a student at Hamilton Taft High School, the students there knew of Mallory.
“He was one of those guys who was always there,” Owens said.
Deb Young-Morrison said when her husband, Michael, played music at LeSourdsville Lake in 1976 and 1977, they would sometimes pick up Mallory at the Anchor and take him to the amusement park.
“He was a hoot,” said Young-Morrison, who started Mallory’s family tree when he was in the nursing home. “He always got a kick out of the music.”
Some Middie fans said they may pass out bubble gum Saturday night at the boys basketball tournament game against Wilmington at Cintas Center in Mallory’s memory.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Harvey and Victoria Mallory; and brothers, Harvey and Estill.
Arrangements are being handled by Baker-Stevens-Parramore Funeral Home.
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