After her death John Maloney quickly remarried and nine more children were added to the family by Tom's stepmother.

To make matters worse only a few weeks after Julia's death John was injured while working as a stevedore on the dock.

As a twelve-year-old, Tommy worked helping to run his father's saloon, the Cuckoo's Nest at First and Brannan in San Francisco.

[6] State Senator Tommy Maloney, known as the son of a saloon keeper from Kildare, County in Ireland, was raised on the rough streets South of Market, in San Francisco; he served as a great friend of labor yet with only a sixth grade education.

[2][8] Known as the Unbeatable Tommy Maloney at the end of his career, he had been Speaker Pro Tem of the California Assembly and a thirty-two year veteran of Sacramento.

[1] The state's most important laws on worker compensation, payments for the sick and disabled, benefits for the aged, the blind, and housing for veterans were among bills he wrote or championed.