West Akron woman honors friendship with Margo Prade
Donzella Michele Malone
Newly published book a ‘labor
of love’
By Kathleen Folkerth
WEST AKRON — She was a popular physician, a doting mother and a reliable friend. But when Dr. Margo Shamberger Prade’s life ended Nov. 26, 1997, the 41-year-old West Akron woman became widely known as a murder victim, shot by her husband, Douglas Prade, a high-ranking captain in the Akron Police Department. Now a friend of Margo Prade’s has published a book that she hopes will show people who Margo Prade was and why her death dealt such a blow to those who knew her well.
“She was more than a doctor
— she was a friend, a
caring community icon,” said Donzella Michele Malone,
author of “Remembering Margo: A Triumphant Life,
a Tragic Death and Life’s Greatest Deception.”
“She’s been remembered as a murder
victim for eight years. I don’t want that anymore.”
Malone, a West Akron resident,
will sign copies of the book at Borders Books and Music
in Montrose July 29 from 2 to 5 p.m. She will host a
party later that night at
Tangier for those who purchase the book.
Malone said the book —
published by Vantage Press, a New York publishing company
specializing in new authors — was a “labor
of love.”
Malone, who is now an outpatient
counselor at the Community Health Center in Akron, met
Margo Prade in 1979 when the two were teammates on a
softball team.
“We met at the first practice,”
Malone said. “Our relationship didn’t develop
right away because we were both very competitive and
we were competing for the same spot in left field. Once
she got it, it didn’t matter to me.”
Margo Prade was enrolled in medical
school at Northeastern
Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM) at the
time and dating Douglas Prade.
Malone and Margo Prade developed
a close relationship.
“It didn’t matter
what changes occurred,” Malone said. “Whatever
I was going through, she and Douglas were always there.
They were friends.”
She added she saw Margo Prade
nearly every day because Malone’s husband, Tom
Anuszkiewicz, a forensic psychologist, shared space
in the medical building on Wooster Avenue that Margo
Prade had built for her family practice.
The morning that Margo Prade
was found dead in her van
parked outside her office, Malone was one of the people
who flocked to the scene. She said she has no recollection
of it, but according to Margo Prade’s office manager,
Malone told her she would write a book about her friend
one day.
She started writing letters to her
friend the night before her funeral, and those letters
made their way into the finished book.
Working on the project, which
took six years to write and more than a year to get
published, was a way for Malone to deal with her grief,
she said.
“It started as a grief
process,” she said. “The first letter I
wrote her was a goodbye letter the night before her
funeral.”
Meanwhile, TV news programs and
local media continued to
report on the murder and the subsequent investigation,
much to Margo Prade’s friends’ and family’s
chagrin.
“Just this week on A&E
they showed a documentary on her,” Malone said.
“That’s all that’s ever happened. ‘Dateline,’
‘Hard Copy,’ all they have ever done is highlight
the murder. No one has talked about her as a living person
on this earthly domain.”
Yet until she was done with the
book, Malone couldn’t really put her finger on
why she was doing it.
“I didn’t know the
reason until I was finished,” Malone said. “[Margo’s]
daughters were so young [when she died]. I wanted her
daughters to know their legacy. They need to be able
to tell their children that
their grandmother started the first diversity program
at NEOUCOM.”
In the book, Malone relates stories
about Margo Prade from patients, fellow doctors and family
members, as well as her own remembrances. She said it
was common for Margo Prade to pay for medical tests herself
for patients who had no insurance coverage.
“She was well-known,”
Malone said. “She did so much more than people
realize, like free exams for the indigent. I know she
wouldn’t want to be remembered as a murder victim.
She had so much more left to do.”
Margo Prade was born and raised
in Akron, graduating as valedictorian from Central-Hower
High School. She graduated from Kent
State University and NEOUCOM in 1983 and completed her
residency with Akron General Medical Center.
The book does recount the events
leading up to Margo Prade’s death and includes some
graphic details about the crime. Douglas Prade was eventually
convicted of the murder and is now serving a life sentence.
For Malone, seeing the book come
to its completion was a moving experience.
“I got the book three weeks
ago,” she said, relating how she ran home from
work during her lunch break to get the package. “I
just grabbed my chest and got kind of emotional. My
son said, ‘Wow, Mom, you wrote a book.’”
For more information on the book,
book signing and party, call (330) 620-8180.
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