Maurice Delmar "M.D." Allyn

He was born on August 21,1918 , in Mount Vernon, Illinois, to an average working-class American family.

His father worked for Armour & Company for many years, and his mother was a hard-working homemaker.

His sister, Mary Kathryn, was born sickly and died 22 months later. He grew up during

the Depression in East St. Louis, Illinois. M.D. excelled in school and graduated in the

top 3% of his high school class as a member of the National Honor Society. He went on

to attend business college at night while, following in the footsteps of his father, working

for Armour & Co. When World War II broke out, he was drafted into the U.S. Army Air

Corps. He spent the early years of WWII helping to train the hundreds of thousands of

recruits. He spent the last year of the war as a tail gunner on B-17s and B-29s. He had

orders to ship out to the Pacific when the war abruptly ended with the dropping of the

atomic bomb. After the war he went to work for Gulf Oil in Nashville, TN in the account

ing department, where he met his wife Freda. They were married on March 17, 1951. He re

ceived several promotions throughout his career and eventually moved from Nashville to Memphis to

New Orleans to Fort Worth and finally to Houston where he retired at age 60 in 1978.

He was a member of the Gethsemane United Methodist Church for 42 years where he enjoyed worship and

made many close friends. 30 of those years were dedicated to teaching adult Sunday school. He also

served on the committees that assisted the poor, including operating a food pantry, and spearheaded a fund

for a friend’s liver transplant. Since boyhood, M.D. had a lifelong fascination with radio, the Internet of its

day. M.D. was a “ham” amateur radio operator for most of his life. One of his great joys was assisting

with emergency communications in natural disasters throughout the world, including the Mexico City earth

quake and a whole host of hurricanes. Another great interest was baseball. He played the sport as a kid,

teenager, and even tried out as a left-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. After moving to Houston

in the early 60’s, he and Freda became fans of the Astros, Rockets, and later, even the WNBA Comets. He

also enjoyed listening to music and reading a good book. He read the newspaper and worked the crossword

puzzle with Freda every day. M.D. loved a good story and a clean joke and would tell his favorites often.

M.D. always tried to live a moral, Christian life and helped others to find Christ in their lives.

M.D. was preceded in death by his parents; Archie and Bessie Allyn and sis

ter, Mary Kathryn. He is survived by his loving wife Freda Copeland Allyn; daughters,

Janice Allyn Pope and her husband Russell, Trish Allyn Tagle and her husband Raul;

Son, Larry Allyn and his wife Susan; Grandchildren; Jordan Pope, Emily Pope, April

Allyn and Rachel Tagle. Serving as Pallbearers; Bill Bunch, Jordan Pope,

Odean Head, Bill Gibson, Gary Greenamoyer, Clyde McWaters.