GULF SHORES, AL – Back in the day, the Malone family used to spend summers in at the family place on Fort Morgan Road.

“That little cabin on Fort Morgan Road was our home every summer from the day school got out,” Malone said. “We’d get out about midday, our mother would pick us up at the school with the car packed and we would move down here for the summer.”

His sister, retiring Councilwoman Carolyn Doughty, is taking up residence on that place, which is no longer a little cabin.

“We grew up in Citronelle and when I was about 6 or so we rented a little cabin out on the bay out Fort Morgan Road and started white trout fishing on the bay around those little old oyster reefs and fell in love with that,” Malone continued. “Next thing you know they bought a lot and built a little cabin. It started out as a little thing, got added onto and remodeled and Carolyn’s done some remodeling.

“It is soon going to be her home and I know she’s looking forward to that.”

Malone and lots of family members showed up on Oct. 24 to honor Doughty as she is stepping down from the council seat she has held for the past 15 years.

She was appointed to the seat when current Councilman Philip Harris’ dad died barely a year into his term in 2001. Gary Sinak ran for and defeated Kevin Corcoran to replace Doughty and will take office on Nov. 7.

But not before Doughty’s little brother, Malone, stopped by to be the final stop on a farewell tour initiated by Mayor Robert Craft.

Before he finished there were lots of laughs, several standing ovations and a few tears as the packed council chambers sent out a smiling Doughty. A reception followed in the mayor’s office conference room in the annex across Clubhouse Drive.

“Citronelle is the oil capital of Alabama and they actually discovered oil there in our youth,” Malone said. “They still pump oil from the ground there today. The city adopted what they called the Oil Queen Pageant. Carolyn was one of the first Oil Queens.”

His sister was also honored to be one of Mobile County’s Azalea Trail Maids, donning her hoop skirt in the annual parade of the county’s proud heritage.

That’s not all, Malone said.

“I won’t tell everything I know,” he said. “She knows more about me than I know about her.”

Another industry prominent in rural Mobile County involved pine trees and the harvesting of turpentine and resin and the organization that promoted the industry.

“This was her biggest honor of all,” Malone said. “Carolyn’s Miss Gum Spirits of Turpentine Queen. With that award, imagine going into any country store in the south, in any small town, any timber shop, any sawmill on a great big calendar wall, a calendar of Carolyn Malone.”

Gales of laughter and applause erupted again.

“This is good stuff,” a laughing Craft said. “Keep going.”

Maybe not, Councilman Joe Garris cautioned.

“Herb, you might oughta stop,” Garris said.

Garris gave his own heartfelt remembrance of Doughty, including a tearful hug.

“I’m pretty quiet, but I have questions from time to time,” Garris said. “But I know if I hang around long enough and be quiet and listen, Carolyn’s going to answer my question. We go back a long ways. All I want’s a hug.”

Craft ended the council ceremony by hanging a plaque of Doughty honoring her as a mayor when, as mayor pro tem, she had to fill in for him.

“Sometime in here I had a major health problem and I’m basically gone for almost six months,” Craft said. “We may refer to her as former councilperson. I don’t refer to her as former councilperson, because between there and this group, there’s this gap.

“During that time is was Mayor Carolyn Doughty.”

Mayor Doughty’s plaque was placed on the wall in between pictures for the 2008 and 2012 pictures of the Gulf Shores City Council group pictures in council chambers.