Obituary of Elaine Allen

Elaine was born in Boise, Idaho on October 5, 1925, the only daughter of Cloyd and Lucretia Carringer. Her momma was determined to get the clothes on the line before Elaine arrived at 1:30 pm. She started school at age 5 in a one room school house in Pine, Idaho and graduated from Mountain Home High School in 1944. She graduated from Boise Junior College in 1946. After completing Boise Secretarial School Center training, Elaine started her Civil Service career working for Bureau of Reclamation on the Anderson Ranch Dam then on to the Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Statistics. She married an Air Force man, Jim Stricklen on May 19, 1951 and the family moved to the Sherman, TX area, where their first son, Larry, was born. Jim was killed in a truck accident in Texas. She then married Calvin Allen on January 12, 1955. He joined the Air Force and they moved to Ardmore, OK where the second son, JT and a daughter, Renate, were born. Calvin got an overseas assignment, so the family moved back to Boise where the third son, Jeff, was born. Calvin then went to Fairbanks, Alaska. He returned to Boise and the family moved to Spokane, WA where Calvin was reassigned to Geiger Field and Elaine worked at Deep Creek. After 6 years he was reassigned to Portland, OR and the family was there for one year. After that the family moved onto Florida to be stationed at Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, FL. Elaine went back to work with the Civil Service working on base at Eglin. She worked in many different areas but mostly with the Air Force Auditor General's office for 13 years until Calvin retired. As a special note of amazement during that time, she could type 150wpm on a manual typewriter while having a conversation with someone else, which was way before multi-tasking became popular. She and the boys returned to Boise in 1977 and worked at the VA for 10 years. Elaine worked for 30 years for the federal government and volunteered at Johnson Floral, which turned into a 11 year part-time job, finally retiring in 1986. Elaine continued to enjoy lunches and activities at the Star and Eagle Senior Centers. She enjoyed hobbies of exercising with the Happy Hoofers, singing with the Footnotes, driving the senior vans, reading, visiting with people, square dancing and roller skating. Elaine loved to laugh, be funny and be around positive people. She loved to ride Harley Davidsons and loved to hear that, as she described, "potato - potato - potato" sound Harleys made. In 1987, Elaine went to New Zealand for a couple of years to work for a church as part of a mission. She was a member of the Star Christian Church and contributed many hours of volunteer work to include the Eagle and Star Senior Centers, the Morrison Center Auxiliary and driving for FISH. She was awarded "Driver of the Year" by the city of Boise. Survivors include three sons, Larry (Elizabeth) and Jeff (Rita) of Boise, J. T. and daughter, Renate McDowell (Kenny) of Ft. Walton Beach, FL; three grandsons and one granddaughter; one step granddaughter, one step grandson and two great grandsons, one great granddaughter, three step great grandsons, one step great granddaughter and numerous nieces and nephews. Elaine was preceded in death by her parents Cloyd & Lucretia and three brothers; Dale of Brookings, OR, Glen of Boise, ID and Burl of Northglenn, CO. Memorials may be made to the Eagle & Star Senior Centers. There will be no services at her request. Please be happy, not sad, for she is happy and free now in the presence of her Lord and Savior. Summers Funeral Home, Ustick Chapel, will take care of her cremation. Please visit www.summersfuneral.com to leave thoughts, messages, feelings of love and comfort.