COLUMN: Proof that a heart can live in two places

Red is the dress code for Georgia’s season opener on Saturday, and Molly Muse will be in compliance.

She will be wearing green, too.

No, she is not getting a head start on the holidays with red-and-green attire. 

 ‘Tis the (football) season, not Christmas.

The only other place you might notice green — besides the Sanford Stadium grass and the beloved hedges — is the outnumbered Marshall fans in the visitors’ section.

Molly is a real estate agent in Macon. She will be sitting in the club level with family members and friends. Her older brother, Matt, will be cheering for Marshall. (His color scheme might not rival Buddy the Elf, but he graduated from Georgia Tech, so no explanation is needed.)

Molly was born in Huntington, West Virginia, the home of the Marshall Thundering Herd. Her parents, Murrill and Helen Ralsten, were big Marshall boosters.

She graduated from the University of Georgia, where she met Ed Muse. They fell in love and married at Christ Church in Macon on Sept. 3, 1994. Next week will be their 31st wedding anniversary.

She wore her mother’s wedding dress at the rehearsal dinner. 

Molly is proof that a heart can live in two places.

On Nov. 14, 1970, Marshall’s football team was on a Southern Airways DC-9 returning from Greenville, North Carolina, following a heartbreaking 17-14 loss to East Carolina.

 The pilot was attempting to land in cold rain and fog at the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, West Virginia. The plane hit the tops of the trees above a ridge and crashed into a thick, wooded hollow with almost a full tank of fuel.

 It claimed the lives of all 75 people on board, including 37 players, members of the coaching staff, faculty and booster club.

Among those killed were Murrill and Helen Ralsten.

It was the worst air tragedy involving a sports team in U.S. history.  The school’s efforts to rebuild the program the following season were the inspiration behind the 2006 movie, “We Are Marshall,” starring Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox.

Molly has her own part in the movie’s final scene. She is gathered around the memorial fountain on the campus in Huntington, with others who lost family members.

She was 3 years old when her parents died. Her brother was 5. They were two of the more than 70 children who were orphaned. They were raised by their aunt and uncle.

Molly doesn’t remember the plane crash. Her brother, who was almost 6, sat by the window, waiting for his mom and dad to come home.

Murrill Ralsten owned a men’s clothes store in Huntington. He was a city councilman and some believe he might have been elected the city’s next mayor. 

He certainly had royal pedigree. His great-great-great grandfather, John Beckley, was friends with Thomas Jefferson. He was the first Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives — serving during the signing of the Declaration of Independence — and was the first Librarian of Congress. 

 The town of Beckley, West Virginia, is named in his honor. Molly and Ed named their firstborn son, Beckley, and call him “Beck” for short.

 Helen Banda met her future husband when they were students at Marshall. She was from Weirton, West Virginia, a steel town along the Ohio River in the state’s northern panhandle bordering Pennsylvania and Ohio.

She was the first in her family to go to college. She was tall and athletic. Her nickname was “Flip.” They were married 66 years ago last week, on August 22, 1959.

The Ralstens had been invited to make the trip with other Marshall boosters.  It was the first time the school had traveled by plane to a road game and was the first experience on an airplane for several of the players. Some of the parents were superstitious and raised objections about the team flying to North Carolina on a Friday the 13th.

Those who knew her family have told Molly she is pretty like her mama and personable like her dad. The stories and snapshots are her only means of filling a blank canvas.

 She cannot remember the sound of their voices. Her dad was 38. Her mom was 32. 

Molly is 58 and is now a grandmother.

Early in their marriage, she and Ed had season tickets to UGA games. Jim Donnan, the head coach at Marshall, became Georgia’s head coach in 1996.

When sons Beck and Matt were 7 and 5 they took them to the Georgia-Marshall game on September 18, 2004. It’s the only other time the two schools have met. (The Dogs won 13-3.)

The Muses were able to see Marshall play on several occasions when their sons were students at Georgia Southern. (Both schools are in the Sun Belt Conference.)

The Muses make an effort to attend the annual “We Are … Playing for the 75” game. The memorial ceremony is held on the home date closest to the Nov. 14 anniversary. This year, the game is on Nov. 8 against James Madison.

The names of all 75 people who died in the crash are read aloud, and family members are given roses to carry and place in the fountain. 

Her brother, Matt, was asked to give the keynote speech at the ceremony in 2019. The following year, which marked the 50th anniversary, Molly and her brother were chosen for the ceremonial coin toss before the game.

The fountain is turned off at the ceremony and does not flow again until the spring.

Many of those in the crowd at Sanford Stadium on Saturday had not been born in 1970. 

Molly wasn’t old enough to tie her shoes or recite the
alphabet.

She keeps the charm bracelet her mother left behind in a jewelry box. She will wear it on Saturday.

And even though she was too young to remember when it happened, she can never forget the pride she has
always carried with her.

Ed Grisamore’s columns appear weekly in The Macon Melody.