Maryon Allen
Maryon Pittman Allen (born November 30, 1925 in Meridian, Mississippi) is a former United States Senator, having been appointed to succeed her husband, James Allen, after his death in 1978. She served from June 8 to November 7 of that year.
Maryon Pittman moved with her family to Birmingham in 1926 and she was educated in the Birmingham City Schools. She studied journalism at the University of Alabama, but left after two years to get married. After having three children, she divorced and earned her living writing a society column for the Shades Valley Sun. She moved up to the Birmingham News in 1964, but left her job when she married then-Lieutenant Governor James Allen, a Gadsden lawyer.
Allen moved with her husband to Washington D. C. when he was elected to the Senate in 1968. She wrote a syndicated column called “Reflections of a News Hen,” which was carried locally. President Gerald Ford appointed her to chair the Blair House Fine Arts Commission in 1974.
After the death of her husband, Governor George Wallace appointed her to fill his seat until a special election was held. She ran for the Democratic nomination, but was defeated by Donald Stewart, who went on to win the general election and take over her seat in November of the dame year.
After leaving the Senate, Allen remained in Washington and contributed a regular column, "Maryon Allen’s Washington" to Katherine Graham's Washington Post until 1981. She was on hand to christen the USS Birmingham (SS N695) nuclear submarine. After retiring she returned to Birmingham, buying a home at 3215 Cliff Road. She worked in public relations for Washington auction house C. G. Sloan & Company and began restoring vintage clothing and opened her own Maryon Allen Company, which enjoyed a national clientele. She moved to a garden home on Creekstone Circle in Vestavia Hills in 2004.
| Preceded by: James Allen |
U. S. Senator from Alabama 1978 |
Succeeded by: Donald Stewart |
References
- Watson, Elbert L. (1982) Alabama United States Senators. Huntsville: Strode Publishers, pp. 150–52
- U.S. House of Representatives Office of History & Preservation (2006) Women in Congress, 1917-2006. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office
External links
- Maryon Allen at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress