H.R. No. 178
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, The loss of retired pastor Ivan Eugene Allen of Lake
Jackson on May 21, 2012, is keenly felt by the many people whose
lives he forever enriched; and
WHEREAS, Born to Ivan and Aletta Allen on a family farm near
Booker on September 25, 1922, Ivan Allen graduated from Booker High
School in 1940; he then enrolled at Texas Technological College in
Lubbock and became a member of the U.S. Army Reserve Officer
Training Corps; in 1942, he joined the Army Reserve, and he served
on active duty in the army for two years; and
WHEREAS, Following his military service, Mr. Allen returned
to operate the family farm, where he grew wheat and corn, raised
chickens, and ran a small dairy; he joined the Methodist church in
Booker, where he met his future wife, Helen Ball; married in 1945,
the couple went on to spend nearly six decades together and were
blessed with three children, Leta, Charles, and Roger; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Allen answered the call to enter the ministry,
and in 1960, he received his first appointment within the Methodist
Church, moving with his family to Morse; in addition to serving the
congregation, he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at
Panhandle A&M College in Oklahoma in 1962; he was ordained a deacon
that same year and later became an elder in the Northwest Texas
Conference of the Methodist Church; and
WHEREAS, Over the next three decades, Pastor Allen served
congregations in Morse, Childress, New Deal, Sunray, Stinnett,
Sweetwater, Munday, and White Deer, and for a dozen years he served
as statistician with the church's Northwest Texas conference;
retiring in 1988, he moved with his wife to Childress, where he
remained active in the church and served as a hospice chaplain at
Childress Regional Medical Center; a valued member of the Childress
community for more than two decades, he moved to Lake Jackson in
2009 to be closer to family; and
WHEREAS, Pastor Ivan Allen lived a caring and purposeful
life, and though his death has brought great sorrow to all who knew
him, he leaves behind a legacy of good works that will long resonate
in the communities in which he served; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 83rd Texas
Legislature, 1st Called Session, hereby pay tribute to the memory
of Ivan Eugene Allen and extend sincere sympathy to the members of
his family: to his children, Leta Ruth Loyd and her husband, Roger,
Charles Roy Allen and his wife, Sanjuana, and Roger Keith Allen and
his wife, Neeta; to his brother, R. D. Allen, and his wife, Jane; to
his sisters, Mamie Agler, Effie Townsend, and Dorothy Tate; to his
sister-in-law, Dorothy Allen; to his seven grandchildren and seven
great-grandchildren; and to his other relatives and friends; and,
be it further
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
prepared for his family and that when the Texas House of
Representatives adjourns this day, it do so in memory of Ivan Allen.
King of Hemphill
______________________________
Speaker of the House
I certify that H.R. No. 178 was unanimously adopted by a
rising vote of the House on June 25, 2013.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House