Bill Malvern who brought focus on youth, Black voices to City Council dies at 84 - Sherman Denison Herald Democrat

For more than a decade, Bill Malvern served the city of Denison as both a voice for underrepresented communities and an advocate for the youth. As the member of the City Council on two occasions, Bill Malvern helped  set the stage for the current growth that the city is currently experiencing and ensured that future generations would have quality amenities within the city.

Bill Malvern died Saturday at the age of 84.

Bill Malvern was first elected to the City Council in 2000 and served until 2006. He started his second tenure in 2012 and served for an additional six years until 2018.

"Billy Malvern was a giant in our community," Mayor Janet Gott said this week. "He was a man with a servant heart and he served the community not only when he was on the council, but he was always engaged in our community."

Bill Malvern was born in Denison in January 1937 and joined the US Navy as a teenager. In the military, Bill Malvern served as a cook, which let engage in a life-long love for cooking that he brought home with him.

"He would feed our neighborhood," Misty Malvern said. "Friends and family would come over when he cooked his gumbo."

Upon leaving the military, Bill Malvern moved to Los Angeles, but he eventually returned home to Denison and settles back into his home town. While in Denison, Bill Malvern started working at what was then a Safeway production plant near the former Texoma Medical Center Complex.

Former mayor Robert Brady met Bill Malvern when he was started work at the plant just after high school. At the time, Malvern was a team leader and quickly took him under his wing and showed him the ropes of the facility.

"He had a reputation in the black community and all you had to do was talk to him for a little bit to understand that," Brady said. "He had a sense of responsibility about him to his fellow man."

This was the start of a long friendship that eventually culminated with both on the city council. It was Bill Malvern who made the motion that Brady be named mayor pro tem during his time on council.

During his time on the council, Bill Malvern was often a quiet voice who didn't speak often, but still advocated from various groups within the city from his position. Among the initiatives he started was the Denison Youth Advisory Council, which brought teenagers within the community into city hall for a closer look at the operations and leadership of the city.

"He worked really hard to turn things around and give kids another option," Brady highlighted Bill Malvern's push for education.

While the program has long since gone dormant, it's effects can still be seen in other groups and programs that have come since, including youth programs offered by the Denison Chamber of Commerce.

"One of the things you could count on with him was that if you had conversations with him he was going to speak the truth about the issue and he loved Denison," former mayor Jared Johnson said. "I think he really took to heart that as one of seven council members we have a voice in making Denison a better place."

Malvern played a role in pushing for the creation of Texoma Health Foundation Park as a generational asset that would benefit the city for decades to come. Johnson speculated that this interest came out of wanting to see things he did not have when he was young come for future generations.

"He enjoyed seeing things first time in his lifetime of Denison going to a new level," Johnson said. "He was extremely supportive of the THF Park project and saw it as an asset for generations to come."

Beyond his service on the city council, Malvern also served with numerous community groups, including the Denison Branch of the NAACP, and youth programs as a softball and football coach.

Visitation will be held at Waldo Funeral Home from 2-7 p.m. on Friday. A funeral service will follow the next day at 10:30 a.m. at Mt. Olive Baptist Church.