Judy Malone Remembered: South of the Highway’s Southern Belle

When Judy Malone — a wildly accomplished and charismatic Southern belle with a boatload of brains and a dramatic drawl — chatted up Northerners in the Hamptons, she couldn’t wait to answer the question: “So where in the South are you from?”

“South JER-sey!” she’d say, followed by a fit of laughter.

That was Judy: all spark, spirit and spitfire. All giving. If you said, “Judy, I love you!” her response was always, “I love you more, darlin’!”

Judy never met a person she couldn’t charm (and never met a pair of stilettos she didn’t just have to have. “Come to mama!” she’d say to the shoes.). Judy had style and substance.

“She was truly amazing, hilarious, brilliant and talented in so many ways. She always made everyone feel good about themsleves,” says Judy’s best friend since high school, Sue Wammock, adding, “You wouldn’t believe how many people expressed how she took them under her wings and guided them in her career. She was one of a kind.”

News that Malone had died on January 19, 2024, nine days shy of her 75th birthday, after complications from a stroke, felt like a sucker punch to the gut to those in her close orbit. People were floored, derailed, stunned. As Judy would have put it, “He looks like he just fell off a turnip truck.”

Judy loved to lead with a joke. “Give ’em what you got, baby,” was a lesson she learned from her beloved father. Underneath that sweet, syrupy drawl was a kettle of emotions that ran as deep as the South, where she grew up in Varnell, Georgia.

Her legal name was Judy Creswell Hamby. East Enders knew her as Judy Malone.

Born on January 28, 1949 in Ringgold, Georgia, the only child to Charlene and Joe Creswell, she grew up in a close-knit family surrounded by relatives and friends.

“With Judy, her imagination was always in overdrive,” recalls first cousin Josephine Suggs, Judy’s “partner in crime.” She adds, “We shared a kindred spirit and an idyllic, adventurous childhood.”

Suggs says Judy got her smarts and her love of literature from her mother and her “over-the-top personality” from her father.

“She had a great ability to pick up on people’s needs,” adds Suggs, who was with Judy when she passed. “She was fascinating — in her lipstick and high heels and pretty hair … she could fascinate a nun.”

After graduating from Georgia Southern University with a degree in journalism, Judy worked for Fairchild Publications as a journalist in Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and New York. She returned to Atlanta to work for Women’s Wear Daily, moving up rapidly, and then landed at Hill & Knowlton, one of the world’s largest public relations agencies, where she worked for 17 years as senior vice president and national creative director in Washington, D.C. as well as general manager of their Atlanta office.

Her journey up north was sparked by a close business relationship with fellow Georgian John Nida, who had been hired by Christian Wölffer at Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack to consult and then to lead the winery and equestrian operations. In 2008, after Wölffer’s sudden death, Nida brought Judy on as a crisis management consultant and then hired her to lead the marketing efforts at Wölffer Estate, where she served as executive director of marketing and communications from 2009 to 2013.

“Judy’s brilliance in marketing was surpassed only by her vibrant zest for life,” says Nida, whose friendship with Judy spanned almost three decades. “She encouraged me to focus on life’s goodness, love those around me, support those in need, and always embrace life with a positive outlook. … She was my best friend.”

In 2010, Judy worked with NBC and the TODAY show to feature anchor Meredith Vieira at Wölffer in a “Fall Harvest” piece that was viewed by millions on television. Judy also helped facilitate other segments featuring Wölffer on TODAY, including an all-anchor NBC wine blending segment with Wölffer Estate winemaker Roman Roth.

“Judy was a unique and special person,” says Roth. “She came to Wölffer Estate at a very difficult time for us … she took the helm as marketing director and quickly applied her special talents to become one of the pillars on our team and continue the dream of building a special winery …she  achieved great results and made a lasting impact.”

After her tenure at Wölffer, Judy worked as the director of marketing and events at Dan’s Papers from 2014 to 2015, under its then owner, Manhattan Media. She then returned to Georgia to care for her cousin Audrey Fincher for many years until Fincher died from Alzheimer’s.

“What mattered most to Judy were her friends and family,” says lifelong friend David Dempsey, who officiated her services at Heritage Funeral Home in Georgia on January 24. “On two occasions Judy chose to leave good jobs to take care of her family (first her mother, then cousin Audrey).”

Dempsey spoke of Judy’s Mensa IQ, her master’s degree in literature and her wicked sense of humor.

“She was a beauty queen,” says Dempsey, reminding mourners she was proud to be crowned “Miss Georgia Poultry Princess” and “Miss Georgia Sweet Potato.”

Judy was an incredible dancer, a ballerina, winning awards for dance and teaching dance in high school. As a majorette, she could twirl a baton that was literally in flames. She knew how to light up a room. And she sure knew how to tell a great story.

Five years ago, Judy and her close friends on the East End reunited to celebrate her 70th birthday at the home she used to rent from Charlene Keogh and Charles Yoder in the Northwest Woods of East Hampton Town.

“We connected instantly,” recalls Keogh. “She would invite Charlie and me to visit and stay in the guest bedroom. She got great pleasure saying, ‘Now make yourselves at home.’”

Keogh says she now looks at the dents in her soft pine wood floors created by Judy’s spiky high heels and vows to never have them sanded.

“I look at those floors, and I feel her presence,” she says. “She will always be my sister and great friend.”

As Sue Wammock puts it, “What other Southern belle goes to the Hamptons and ends up winning everybody’s heart?”

Judy is survived by a multitude of relatives and friends.

The livestreamed remembrance of Judy Malone can be viewed for the next three months by visiting heritagebattlefield.com and clicking “Judy Hamby.”