Lois B. Allen, of Hartford, Conn., Cutchogue, N.Y. and Floral Park, N.Y., passed quietly in her sleep, March 11, 2020, having said goodbye to her family. She was born, May 7, 1914, in Peconic, N.Y., and graduated from Southold High School and Rider University, N.J. During her long life she provided guidance, leadership, knowledge and friendship to many, both locally and around the world.
After marrying her husband, Hayden F. Allen, she moved to Floral Park where she raised her two children, taught Sunday School and became a church leader at the Floral Park United Methodist Church. She was a volunteer for Literacy Volunteers and, with her husband, was awarded the Spirit of Floral Park Award. After 60 years she returned to her home town of Cutchogue, where her biggest gift was to organize the local history archives of the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Library. She then moved to Avery Heights, Hartford, Conn., where her leadership of the knitting group, providing hats and shawls for school children and the homeless, and her work on the Library Committee led to her being chosen to receive the Roberta Ellison Award as the Resident Volunteer of the Year.
She and her husband were world travelers, seeing much of the United States, most countries in the Northern Hemisphere, Turkey, where they traveled a month on their own, and around the world via Russia, Mongolia and China.
Her final wish was granted as she began medical school at Quinnipiac University under their Anatomical Gift Program, establishing a rivalry as her husband went to UConn under their same program.
She is survived by her son Jonathan H. Allen and his wife Lyn, of Ellington, Conn., and daughter, Winabeth Smith and her husband John, of Morgantown; four grandsons; two great-grandson; a great-granddaughter; and two nieces, a nephew and their families.
Memorial services will be held at a later date with burial at the convenience of the family.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Long Island Chapter, The Nature Conservancy Attn: Ann Lader, 250 Lawrence Hill Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 or CHI/Avery Heights, 705 New Britain Ave., Hartford, CT 06106.
