Beany Malone (character)

Catherine Cecilia "Beany" Malone is the heart of the series that bears her name, and is likely Lenora Mattingly Weber's most well-known character.

Introduced as a secondary character to her sister Mary Fred Malone in "Meet the Malones" (1943), Beany became Weber's main character in "Beany Malone" (1948) and remained so for 12 more books.

Unlike many young-adult characters, Beany was allowed to grow up. She became engaged in "Tarry Awhile," (1962), married boy-next-door Carlton Buell in "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" (1963), and was as a young wife and mother in "Come Back, Wherever You Are" (1969). She also made cameo appearances in Weber's other series, the Katie Rose and Stacy Belford series, as a young wife and mother interacting with the Belfords.

Early years

Catherine Cecilia Malone was born on St. Patrick's Day (March 17), presumably in Denver, Colorado, to Martie Malone and Mary Malone. Her father was a newspaper columnist for the Denver Call, and her mother died when she was young. She has three older siblings -- Elizabeth, Johnny, and Mary Fred.

Her nickname, Beany, came from brother Johnny mispronouncing "Baby."

Teenage Beany is described as being five-foot-five, and having gray-blue eyes shadowed by short but very thick eyelashes, roan hair with a well-brushed shine, and bold freckles that she often tried to fade or hide.

After losing her mother early, she became the "little mother" of the Malones, cooking family meals, pouring coffee and filling empty plates. This led to some conflict when Martie Malone suddenly brought a new wife, artist Adair St. John, into the family.

School, church, and work

Beany attended public school in Denver, graduating from Harkness High School and going on to the University of Denver (DU) for two years before dropping out to marry Carlton Buell. The Malones are Catholic, and Beany attends Mass at St. Mary's Church.

Her first job was helping out Denver Call advice columnist Eve Baxter, a job her father, who worked at the newspaper, helped her get. Although she had dreams of full-time newspaper work when she graduated from Harkness, Eve Baxter dashed those dreams, and Beany found herself working at the Lilac Way Community Center with her future husband, Carlton Buell. Community-center work turned out to be much more her style than journalism would have been, and she excelled at it, working with the Happy Homemakers, a girls' group at the center.

Friends, dating, marriage and family

Beany's close friends are few. Her two main friends are Miggs Carmody and Kay Maffley, who seem to jump in and out of her life, one moving away and the other moving back. Her other friends and acquaintances include carhop Dulcie Lungaarde, cousin Sheila McBride, rich girl Jennifer Reed, and slightly older classmate Peggy Hutchinson, who is introduced as a young struggling mother when Beany is a college student.

Beany dated a few young men, including sullen Norbett Rhodes and Andy Kern, who would go on to become a priest. She was surprised to find romance with next-door-neighbor Carlton Buell, her brother Johnny's best friend. (Beany and Carl's romance is not universally loved by all readers, some of whom think Andy or another young man would've been a better choice, and some of whom believe Carl treats Beany like a child.)

The wedding of Beany and Carl is the topic of "Something Borrowed, Something Blue." Beany's step-grandmother, Nonna, runs a wedding-planning service called Memorable Weddings, and offers Beany a deluxe and expensive wedding, hoping that Beany's father will invite the Colorado governor and draw attention to Memorable Weddings. When she learns Martie dislikes the governor, who was a childhood acquaintance who always took more than his share of doughnuts, she extracts herself from the fancy wedding, and Beany and Carl are wed in a simple, family-filled ceremony.

Beany and Carl have a son, whom they nickname Mister, within a year of their wedding, and a daughter, Mary Liz, shortly after.