Martha "Marty" Ann Allen

Martha “Marty” Ann Allen passed away at 6 am on August 23, 2026 at the age of 66. She is survived by husband Clark N. Allen, brothers Richard D Erler, David W Erler and Russell G Erler; sister Mary E Schwartz, nephews Robert J Erler and Brandon P Schwartz; nieces Amanda Erler and Marissa A Schwartz; cousins Jon Morrissey, Norma Real, Mary Neslony, and Traci Bennett. She was preceded in death by her parents James and Matilda Erler and sister Kathleen G Erler.

Marty had a difficult childhood as her younger sister was disabled and her parents divorced when she was in middle school. Nonetheless this made Marty a very strong person. She was born in San Antonio, Texas and her family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was only 3 years old. Marty attended college at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During this time, she would visit Houston to see her siblings. Before she graduated from college, she had met her husband Clark on one of these Houston visits. It was at a New Year’s Eve party that they met. After that they were almost inseparable, except that Marty still needed to finish her degree. During that time, she was traveling back and forth between Houston and Baton Rouge, to spend time with Clark. She graduated from LSU in Baton Rouge in 1981 with a computer science degree with math minor. She hired on with Texas Eastern (which was renamed Duke Energy, then Spectra Energy, and now merged with Enbridge) as a system analyst. She immediately moved to Houston. Marty and Clark were married on February 12, 1982 in a civil ceremony.

It was fortunate for us that much of her siblings had located back to Texas and resided in Houston before her. Once she and Clark got a large enough house, their house became the default location for family gatherings. Marty loved entertaining and cooked wonderful meals for us. And they also hosted pool parties, for by now Marty had become an aunt to 4 children.

Marty and Clark were avid hikers and travelers. They started out with US national parks and US cities. They branched out to trips overseas. During their time together, they visited 6 of the world’s continents and 45 plus countries together. She enjoyed not only the sights, but the company of the fellow travelers in the group and the natives of the host country. Her travel pictures include lots of smiles from Martha and everyone else. Only her health slowed her down. By late 2023 they started taking cruises, with their last trip in the Adriatic in early 2024. Despite all the travel and ill health, she managed to make it to our daughter’s wedding in Austin in late 2024. That’s when we realized that she was in very poor health. In the last two years of travel, she commented about the food making her sick, and she started having injuries on the trips. Clark would try to talk her into going home, but she had another country to add to her bucket list and refused to abandon the trip. Her hospitalizations started in October 2024, off and on, until January 2025, when she came to the Methodist. After her surgery she was in the hospital another 9 months. Clark was always very attentive to Martha, but especially so after her long hospital visit. His help was critical in getting her strong enough to leave Houston. By March 2026 she and Clark were ready to go back home. Since then, they made two trips back to Houston by July for her checkups, with a clean bill of health. However, she was still having digestion issues and she was not re-gaining after an extreme weight loss, though she continued to improve her strength to be able to walk with a cane for a short distance. She remained very hopeful, despite a recent diagnosis that she was also having heart failure. She got up at 6 am on August 23 and went to sit in her comfy chair. She died peacefully in that chair within a couple of hours.

A Memorial Service will be held at Earthman Bellaire Funeral Home, 4525 Bissonnet St, Bellaire, TX 77401, US, on September 13, 2026, from 1:00 pm.