The following appeared in a newspaper on January 21, 1997 -- four days after his death. I think it best describes his life."Reprinted by permission of the Visalia Times-Delta."

"Little Irvy" showman Malone dies
By Eric Coyne
Visalia Times-Delta

Jerrel "Tyrone" Malone -- the showman and drag racer who took a whale of an idea on a 30-year road show traveling to three continents -- died during the weekend in a car crash near Phoenix.

The Visalia resident took an idea he sketched on a bar napkin in 1963 and ran with it. An environmental group had just made a television pitch to launch support for a "save the whales" campaign and Malone's friend Warren Foletta said Malone decided to go one step farther.

Malone

"Malone wanted to get a sperm whale, freeze it and take it all over the country to show people just how special those whales are." Foletta said.

"Little Irvy" -- Jerrel "Tyrone" Malone exhibited the frozen whale at car shows and fairgrounds all across America and Canada and 17 cities in Europe, charging viewers 35 cents per peek at the 38-foot-long mammal.

At the time Foletta owned the Crow's Nest bar in Visalia, where Malone was a regular customer. He said he laughed when Malone told him about his idea. But before long, Malone, 66, had a serious financial backer-- local car dealer George Zarounian.

The whale idea quickly became reality.

"They actually hired a captain and a boat and went out to get a whale." Foletta said, shaking his head Monday.

With little money but lots of spunk, friends say Malone wrote to the U.S. Department of the Interior and secured a whaling permit. A 20-ton sperm whale was killed, brought to shore and frozen.

Thus began the "Little Irvy" story -- the tale of the whale Malone exhibited at car shows and fairgrounds all across America and Canada and 17 cities in Europe.

Malone talked the Kenworth truck company out of a custom 1967 10-wheel big rig and built a custom trailer to hold Little Irvy. Legions of viewers paid 35 cents, climbed in one end and walked past four giant Plexiglas panels, taking in the incredible spectacle of a 38-foot-long mammal.

Brother Delbert Malone recalls Little Irvy turned out to be a bigger whale than Tyrone planned on -- and required a trailer 2 feet longer than the legal road-going limit.

"My brother avoided truck scales for almost 10 years because that whale pushed his rig way over the weight limit." said Delbert Malone, interviewed in a storage lot near Goshen, where Little Irvy still rests in frozen silence.

Malone's Australian shark attraction is parked next door -- another semi-trailer that holds three frozen great white sharks: an 18-footer caught off the Great Barrier Reef and two 14 -foot and 13-foot great white sharks caught just outside the Golden Gate near San Francisco.

Where others dreamed of big fish, Malone dreamed of "Jaws" -- and made it pay off big for his family for years.

"He was like Muhammad Ali -- this man was a natural showman." Foletta said. "He created it, promoted it and did it all himself."

Malone's daughter Karen said her father -- never one to overlook an opportunity -- realized almost immediately that most men preferred to look at his customized big rig while their wives and children paid their dues and peeked in Little Irvy's trailer.

So Malone built the "Boss Truck of America" -- a V-12 Detroit Diesel Allison-powered Kenworth that dripped chrome, sported a $10,000 sunset orange paint job and had a gold-plated fifth wheel.

That show truck was quickly followed by "Super Boss" -- a 1,300-horsepower all-out racing truck Tyrone Malone used to set a land speed record of 144 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

But Malone didn't race for free. Before starting down the salt flats on his path into the truck racing history books, Malone called Bandag, a company that built an international reputation for offering superb retread truck tires.

Bill Block, Bandag's now retired communications director, says it was the beginning of a wildly successful 17-year sponsorship.

"At the time, Tyrone Malone was the No. 1 promotional package in the tire industry." Block said, from his home in Muscatine, Iowa.

Bandag paid Malone a small fortune to tour the world and hold "open houses" for truckers at tire dealerships. Truckers were sent invitations to come see Malone do wheelies and outrageous burnouts.

"If there wasn't a nearby airport runway or drag strip, Malone would get the city to close off the streets and do burnouts through the center of town." Block said. "We sent him to Europe, all over Canada and even Australia."

Fresno Autorama promoter Blackie Gejeian said when he wasn't racing or showing off his sea mammal, Malone's racing trucks were were the talk of the national custom car show circuit.

"Everybody looked up to Tyrone Malone -- he was the king of the Truckers." Gejeian said, "and that whale made him a fortune."

Delbert Malone said his brother was pursuing another dream just before his death Friday.

Tyrone went to Phoenix for a business meeting to discuss plans for a Trucking Hall of Fame he planned to build with a partner in Tennessee. The museum was to hold all his racing trucks, Little Irvy and pay homage to famous trucks and drivers.

Instead, Delbert Malone said his brother was killed after he fell asleep on the long drive home and ran into a trucker.

"The Highway Patrol said the trucker did everything he could to avoid him and even ran off the road, but Tyrone hit the side of his truck." Delbert Malone said.

Malone died a few minutes later. Both Karen and Delbert Malone said they found Tyrone Malone's death ironic because it involved another trucker.

"And because Dad spun in two 360-degree turns during the accident," Karen Malone said.

Services for Malone will be 11 a.m. Thursday at the United Methodist Church. Burial will be at Visalia District Cemetery, and a reception will be held at PPAV Hall immediately following the graveside service.

Surviving are his children, Beverly Buhl, and Karen and Cory Malone of Visalia and Deborah Malone of Sacramento; his mother, Juanita Marie Mulanaz Malone of Visalia; two brothers, Delbert and Sammy Malone of Visalia; two sisters, Claudean Denny of Arizona and Arlene Feher of Fresno; and six grandchildren.