Martha Marie Allen

Martha Marie Waters Allen was born April 17, 1920 to Homer Forrest Waters and Gladys Sparks Waters in Poolville, Texas. She had a sister Theda Jones and a brother Hershel Waters. Her family moved to Arlington in 1939. She met Thomas Lewis Allen, Sr. at the First Baptist Church in Arlington before he left to go to war in the Navy during World War II. Martha worked at “Consolidated” (the predecessor of Convair, General Dynamics, and Lockheed in Fort Worth) for two years during World War II. She studied math and blueprint reading at Arlington State College and was one of seventeen women hired by “Consolidated” during the war to keep personnel records and payroll records. After the war, she and Tommy dated for about a year before they married on June 27, 1946.

Martha and Tommy had three children, Marcia Elaine in 1948, Thomas, Lewis Jr. in 1949, and Anita Ruth in 1950. Their family attended University Baptist Church in Arlington for many years. Martha and Tommy were active in the Arlington Chapter of the Eastern Star, and they became Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron in 1958 and 1959. Their days were built around their church and their family, including the extended families of their brothers and sisters, whom they loved dearly. The childhoods of their three children passed quickly, filled with church activities, school activities, Little League games, trips to visit other family members, trips to the ice cream parlor and the soda fountain at the drug store for hamburgers, cranking homemade ice cream, eating at the first Mexican food restaurant in Arlington, and many happy holiday activities with the extended families.

All three of their children married in the summer of 1969 and their children and spouses frequently returned to Martha and Tommy’s house to visit and to join Martha and Tommy for dinner. Tommy once asked Martha how it could be that all three children no longer lived at home, but that their grocery bill had increased in size. As the years went by, they added seven grandchildren to their family: Richard Alan Simmons (wife Heather), Hollie Michelle Wise Magnuson (husband Chris), Cindy Nicole Wise Domenico (husband David), Russell Lewis Allen (wife Shannon), Abigail Marie Allen McDonald (husband Timm), Lindsay Brooke Simmons Carrouth (husband David), and Thomas Clinton Guy Simmons (wife Jeanette).

As even more years went by, they added twenty great-grandchildren to their family: Lauren Taylor Graham, Micah Simmons, David Domenico, Josh Domenico, Kaylee Simmons, Alex Domenico, Jett Magnuson, Harrison Carrouth, Isaac Simmons, Jake Magnuson, Genevieve Simmons, Jackson McDonald, Bailey Carrouth, Dominic Domenico, Emma Lou Allen, Madelyn Allen, Mia McDonald , Faye Simmons, and twins, Etta and Dorothy Simmons.

After her children entered school, Martha was employed as a bookkeeper at Arlington State Bank, which became Arlington Bank and Trust, which became Chase. She retired from Arlington Bank and Trust in 1975. When Martha and Tommy moved to Cooper, Texas in 1976, she was offered a job at Republic National Bank in Paris, Texas. She retired from that bank in 1985 and she and Tommy moved to Fort Worth, where they lived until Tommy’s death in 1993. She later lived with her daughter, Anita, and moved to the Texas Masonic Retirement Center in 2014, where she lived until her death on February 20, 2016.

Martha was a loving wife, mother, grandmother (“Memaw”), and great-grandmother and will be dearly missed. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Hershel Waters, and her loving husband, Thomas L. Allen, Sr. She is survived by: her sister, Theda Jones; sisters-in-law, Marga Waters, Ann Asimakis, Martha Hidle, Billie Vick, and Clydie Allen; brothers-in-law, John Laymance, Lawton Hidle, and Bob Vick; son, Thomas L. Allen, Jr. (Helen); daughters, Marcia Wise (Raymond), and Anita Simmons (Richard) and her seven grandchildren and her twenty great-grandchildren.