Malinda was born a slave around 1861 in Memphis, Tennessee and she remembers her mother as a very dark woman. Malinda was assigned the job of caring for the slave owners' children. She was very young, approximately two years old at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation,
Janauary 1, 1863, and four years old when the civil war ended in 1865. The census records show that Malinda lived in Tennessee at least through 1879 since her oldest son, Sydney, was born there when Malinda was around 16 years old.

The 1880 census showed that Malinda had moved to "Conway County, Arkansas, and was a 20 year old boarder in the home of James Noah, along with her son Sydney (3) and daughter Addie (9 months).

Sometime around 1881-82 Malinda and Matt Wallace joined together in Arkansas. She was around 22-24 years old and he was 49. Their first child together, Nancy, was born in 1882. At the time of their marriage Malinda had two children and Matt was the father of four. Altogether they would have 17 children. Some of the children died as infants, but eleven grew into adulthood. Matt and Malinda resided in Arkansas until all the children were born.

Between 1901 and the time of the April 1910 census, Matt and Malinda had moved to Indian Territory, Wagoner County (Tullahassee) Oklahoma and lived as farmers and sharecroppers. Tullahasssee was the oldest of the all-Black towns in Oklahoma. There they remained and raised their children until Matt Wallace died on March 31, 1913.

At some point between 1920-1928. Malinda moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma nd lived in a house her daughter, Stella, owned on Madison Street.

In the 1930s, Malinda lived in Tulsa with her youngest child, Amziah and his wife Alice. During the last years of her life, Malinda lived in daugher Stella's small house at 1226 Madison St. in Tulsa and she died there March 19, 1949.

Her funeral was held March 26, 1949, at Mt. Rose Baptist Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma with the Rev. W. Purcelll presiding. She is buried next to her husband, Matt, in Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Tullahassee.