TALENTED JEKYLL ISLANDERS

JEKYLL ISLAND, GEORGIA – Local author Sandy Malone has a big surprise for Golden Isles

arts lovers this Black Friday. Not only will she release her latest book, “Christmas on Jekyll,”

Gem of the Golden Isles Book Five at 3 p.m. on November 28 in the Pulitzer Room at the Jekyll

Island Club Resort, but she’s also going to reveal a cache of hidden paintings by a local legend.

“Christmas on Jekyll” finds Tally Davis and her Jekyll Weddings planning team up to their necks

in wedding humor and intrigue yet again. But this time, it’s Aunt Etah who is at the crux of it,

because she’s the one who convinced Bill Hendrix’s daughter to loan some her late father’s

artwork for a show on Jekyll Island. Nobody realizes how deep into things Tally’s aunt has

gotten until everything blows up and fingers get pointed. Will Tally’s husband, Mitch Durham,

come to their rescue in time again, or will this be the last big event she plans on Jekyll Island?

Seventy years ago, painter Bill Hendrix and his wife, Mittie, together created the art scene in the

Golden Isles as we now know it. Bill went art school before he served in World War II, and upon

his return, taught painting classes in the empty military hangars in what had just become the St.

Simons airport. He also flew his plane to Jekyll Island to teach painting classes on the beach

before there was a bridge.

While Bill taught, Mittie created the Island School of Art, which became the Coastal Center for

the Arts in 1952. It still exists as the organization now known as Glynn Visual Arts. Bill and Mittie

also founded the Sunshine Festival, a now 60-year-old St. Simons tradition.

When Sandy told her girlfriend, Emily Hendrix Slaughter, that she had included her famous

parents and their art legacy in her newest book, it started a series of exciting events that have

led to a very special book launch on Black Friday. Emily gifted Sandy with several of her father’s

paintings from different periods in his career (watercolors, oils, pen and ink drawings, etc.) to

help promote her new book and raise money for the arts on Jekyll Island.

Sandy Malone and her retired SWAT commander husband, Bill, planned more than 500

weddings in the Caribbean before Hurricane Maria wiped out their company overnight. But

Sandy left her mark on the wedding world with her own reality TV show, TLC’s “Wedding

Island,” and by writing hundreds of expert columns in BRIDES, HuffPost Weddings, and

WeddingWire. She also hosted the “Wedding Reality Check with Sandy Malone” podcast for five

years. She has ghostwritten books for other reality TV stars, including a Real Housewife, and is

the author of “How To Plan Your Own Destination Wedding: Do-It-Yourself Tips From An

Experienced Professional,” Skyhorse Publishing 2016.

In the Gem of the Golden Isles series, Sandy has taken all of the absolutely hilarious crazy that

she saw planning real weddings and fictionalized it to protect her guilty clients. She’s also used

her years of being a cop wife and a police news reporter to inject mystery and suspense into all

of her stories. Book Three - “Treasure on Jekyll” – recently won a 2025 International Impact

Book Award for Women’s Fiction: Mystery/Suspense.  Her website is www.SandyMalone.com.