The blue-tile roofed home at 4433 Rawlins St. was designed by Sadler & Russell, architects and constructed by H. F. Self and Son, contractors, for owner Jack P. Burrus. To the new owners, the Maloney’s, it was a larger home than the one at 4332 Livingston where, until the late 1940’s, they raised their family. Robert Ignatius Maloney and his wife, Ester Emma lived here with their youngest son, Bill, and in between movie roles, their daughter, Dorothy Eloise Malone.
Robert, from Kansas, and Ester, from Maryland, met and were married in New York and moved to Chicago to raise their family, including daughter Dorothy, the eldest. When Dorothy was still a baby, they moved to Dallas, where Robert worked for Southwestern Bell, eventually becoming the internal auditor for the company. They had five children. Two of their daughters contracted polio and even after seeking out treatment across the country, died in 1936.
Dorothy had already been to Ursaline Academy and graduated from Highland Park High when they moved to Perry Heights. Dorothy was discovered by Hollywood as an SMU student and by 1945 she was signed by Warner Brothers. In between movies, such as the The Big Sleep and Two Guys From Texas, she stayed in the family home on Rawlins visiting her parents and attending her Dallas friends’ showers and weddings along with appearances around town such as the Mardi Gras queen. She appeared in crime dramas, musicals, and westerns until the late 1940’s when she became discouraged and left Hollywood for her parents house on Rawlins. She became engaged to a young Dallas physician, Dr. Philip O’Brien Montgomery. They planned a June 1949 wedding. Unfortuntely, the engagement fell through and Dorothy poured herself into church activities and even worked for an insurance company before deciding to move to New York City to study theater. She then returned to Hollywood, a newly minted blonde, and was cast in Young at Heart in 1954. By 1957, she had won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Written on the Wind, co-starring Rock Hudson.
Back on Rawlins, her parents had another devasting loss. Their 16 year old son, Bill, a sophomore at Highland Park High, a football quarterback, and a golf champion was killed by lightning on the Dallas Athletic Club golf course in August of 1954. Dorothy dedicated her Academy Award to her brother in her Oscar acceptance speech.
The Maloneys moved from Rawlins shortly after the tragedy to 5351 Livingston (near their first Dallas home) and later to Versailles Ave. Ester died in 1983, followed by Robert in 1985 leaving Dorothy and another son, Robert, who had become a Dallas judge. Dorothy died in Dallas in 2018 at age 94 and is survived by her two daughters, Mimi and Diane, and six grandchildren.