Obituaries: Florence Love Allen (Mrs. O. K.), 1938, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: March 31, 1938 Winn Parish Enterprise Mrs. O. K. Allen Will Be Buried Here Friday 3 P. M. Body Will Lie In State At First Baptist Church From 11 a.m. to 2:30 p. m. Mrs. Florence Love Allen, 44, widow of the late Gov. O. K. Allen, died of a heart attack at her recently purchased home in the Slattery Park Subdivision, Shreveport. Funeral services will be held in the First Baptist Church in Winnfield Friday afternoon at 3 o'clock with the pastor, Dr. B. C. Land officiating. He will be assisted by the Rev. John Caylor, pastor of the Highland Baptist Church, Shreveport. Interment will be in the family plot in the local cemetery. The funeral cortege will leave Shreveport Friday morning at 8 o'clock under the direction of McCook's Funeral Home and is expected to arrive here near 11 o'clock, where the body will lie in state at the First Baptist Church from 11 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. According to Poinsett Johnson, Mrs. Allen's attorney, the following will act as pallbearers: Senator James A. Noe, Monroe; F. E. Welch, O. B. Thompson, Winnfield; A. P. Tugwell, Baton Rouge; Harry Broyles, Shreveport; J. L. Bilbray, Many; Col. Harry B. Nelson, Baton Rouge; Lieutenant Gov. Earl K. Long, Winnfield; Lyndon Allen, Baton Rouge; R. L. Gay, Zwolle; and Harvey L. Peltier, Thibodeaux. Mrs. Allen, whose husband died Jan. 28, 1936, a week before he was to have taken the United States Senate seat of the late Huey P. Long, had been in ill health for more than a year and on several occasions had been near death as a result of heart attacks. She was removed to her home at 530 Linden Avenue from Highland Sanitarium last Friday after having recovered, apparently from a recent illness. Only her 12 year old son, Asa Benton Allen, and her attorney, Poinsett Johnson, and a private nurse were with her at the time of death. Oscar Kelly Allen, Jr., a student at the Louisiana State University law school, Baton Rouge, left for Shreveport Wednesday night immediately after being informed of his mother's death. In addition to her two sons, Mrs. Allen is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Fred J. Stare of Madison, Wis., the former Joyce Love Allen, who because of illness, will be unable to attend the funeral rites. Other survivors are two brothers, Benton Love, Paris, Texas; and Frank Love, Wichita Falls, Texas, and five sisters, Miss Carrie Love of Shreveport, an employee of the state motor vehicle licensing bureau; Mrs. Sallie Love Peele, Fort Worth, Texas; Mrs. G. D. Scott, Yowell, Texas; Mrs. M. G. Neathery, Vernon, Texas; and Mrs. G. T. Scroggs, Norman, Okla. Congressman A. Leonard Allen of the Eighth Louisiana District, a brother of the late governor, telegraphed that he and his wife would leave Washington immediately to attend the funeral. For several years Ms. Allen's health was a problem of major concern. She traveled to health resorts and enlisted the aid of specialists whose efforts to improve her health were only temporarily successful. When she established a residence in Shreveport in November, 1936, she told friends it was primarily because of the health facilities which the city offered. Although she had expressed herself as finding Shreveport "a desirable place in which to live," she told her associates many times that she always would maintain her home in Winnfield where she and her husband settled after their marriage in Texas. Gov. and Mrs. Allen's courtship had its beginning in March, 1912 in Paris, Texas, when the governor was a young bookkeeper for a construction company. Mrs. Allen, then Miss Florence Love, met him in church. They were married eight months later. After their honeymoon, the couple returned to the late governor's home in Winnfield, where they lived until he became chairman of the Louisiana Highway Commission in 1928 after being elected state senator. The late "first lady" took no active part in politics or public life. She once said that from the time her husband first ran for public office, the Winn Parish assessorship, soon after their marriage, the only part she ever took in his political campaigns and affairs was to entertain his friends. Mr. Allen was elected governor in 1932 and four years later was elected to fill the unexpired term of Huey P. Long in the United States Senate. He died one week before he was to have taken the position. Mrs. Mattie Broyles, superintendent of the admitting room of Charity Hospital and a sister of the late governor, and Ira W. Allen of Shreveport, a brother, will attend services in Winnfield.