James Lawrence Allen

JAMES LAWRENCE ALLEN was born on April 9th, 1939 to Leona Lillian (Davis) and Lawrence Henry Allen in Alberta, Canada. Before Jim reached two years old, his father died in England while serving in the military in WWII. Soon after, Leona brought Jim to North Dakota to live near her aunt Ethel who Jim knew as Baba. Jim lived with Baba on and off throughout his childhood. He graduated high school in Lansford, ND and went to college in nearby Minot for three years. During this time he sang and played guitar “at every party in town.”

In 1962, while visiting his mother and stepfather in Santa Maria, California, he found true love in meeting Love at an Assembly of God church. They soon married, and Jim joined the army. While stationed in Germany, they had their first child together, Lawrence Henry. Lovie was pregnant with their second when they came back to the US. Robert Justin was born at Fort Ord, CA 10 days before Jim’s discharge. Jim then attended Southern California College (now Vanguard) on a baseball and basketball scholarship and earned a bachelor’s degree in education.

Love and Jim then moved to Banning where Jim became principal at Boy’s Town of the Desert. Stephen James was born on Jim’s birthday in 1968 before the family relocated to Salyer in Northern California. There, Jim served as Hoopa High School principal, and Leslie George, now Eddie, was born. After a move to Etna, their basketball team was complete when Willian Henry, who many know as Bud, came into the family.

In 1990, with the three older boys out of the house, Love and Jim moved with the younger two boys much further south to Ramona where he was the superintendent of a school in Julian. The following year, Jim found his place at Southern California Christian where both Ed and Bud graduated High School. They spent many happy years at their Tustin house, where their sons and growing families would spend hours playing music, pool hoops, wif e ball, and cards, and Love would make a big meal for the family on Sundays.

With all the kids out of the house, Love and Jim found a good home in Apple Valley until a car accident in 2011 left Jim without the use of his left arm. Love and Jim moved in with their son Steve and family for the next six years, where they had the opportunity to get to know the next generation of Allens. In 2018, Love and Jim settled close to family in Hesperia. He went home to Jesus peacefully in his sleep at age 80 on December 31, 2019.

A Celebration of Life service will be held for family and friends on January 5, 2020 at 1PM located at 18829 Arbutus Street, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. A private internment will be held at Riverside National Ceremony on January 24, 2020 where James will be laid to rest.

“A devoted husband, father, and grandfather, a gifted singer, guitar player and storyteller, a faithful servant of God and an ol’ Canadian Cowboy,”

"Truly, Truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life” John 5:24

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