by Sharon Allen Gilder
Reid Fussell Allen, granddaughter of Pinellas County, FL pioneers Malcolm Joel McMullen and Emma Reid Kelso McMullen, died of atrial fibrillation at The Village of Rockville in Maryland on October 19, 2020. She was 98.
An educator and longtime resident of Potomac, MD, she was a member of the extensive McMullen family, which traces its roots to James McMullen who was born in Scotland in 1758 and served in the American Revolutionary War in Canbury’s Company, North Carolina Regiment. He was the grandfather of James P. McMullen and his six brothers who moved to Pinellas County before the Civil War. Mrs. Allen’s grandfather Malcolm Joel McMullen was the son of Thomas Fain McMullen, one of the original seven brothers.
Mrs. Allen was born Mabel Reid Fussell on March 13, 1922 in an upstairs bedroom of her grandparent’s home in Largo, FL. She was the eldest of two daughters born to Clifford Franklin Fussell, who once served as Largo’s town manager, and Marguerite Amy McMullen Fussell. Her grandfather M. Joel McMullen was one of three founders of the West Hillsborough Times newspaper, which later became the St. Petersburg Times, now the Tampa Bay Times. Her grandmother Emma often set the newspaper’s type on her kitchen table.
Mrs. Allen spent her formative years in Largo where she lived with her parents and sister Elizabeth (Betty) at 401 First Avenue S.W., directly across from the original Largo Methodist Church where she was a longtime member.
She graduated in 1940 from Largo High School. During World War II, she attended college and graduated in 1944 with a bachelor’s degree in home economics education from Florida State College for Women, now Florida State University. She taught science and home economics in Newport Richey, FL and at Largo High School in FL from 1944 to 1946.
In 1947 she married her high school sweetheart, Warren Collins Allen, and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1949. Allen’s Creek and Allen’s Creek Drive in Clearwater, FL are named for Mr. Allen’s family who lived and operated a dairy farm there. In 1955, she and her husband bought a home in Wheaton, MD where for many years they were active members of Glenmont United Methodist Church. She began as a substitute teacher in the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland at Weller Road Elementary School and taught first and third grades there over a period of 4 years.
In 1962, while raising a family and teaching, she also earned her master’s degree in home economics education from the University of Maryland in College Park. She taught at Belt Junior High School in Wheaton from 1962 until 1971 when the school closed.
From 1971 to 1981 she taught home economics at Newport Middle School in Kensington, MD until her retirement in 1981.
Her husband Warren Collins Allen died in 1980. In 1984, she married James Elbert Allen, Sr., also born and raised in Largo, who was president of the Henry B. Gilpin Wholesale Drug Company, headquartered at the time in Washington, D.C., and once a leader in the wholesale drug industry supplying metro area pharmacies and drug stores. The company closed in 1982. James Elbert Allen, Sr. died in 2004. Her stepson, James E. Allen, Jr. (Dona) of Gaithersburg, MD died in 2020.
Mrs. Allen was a loving, devoted and cherished mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and wife with a fondness for animals, especially horses and dogs. Throughout her life she loved to garden, travel, enjoy weeks with family and friends in Largo and Clearwater, FL, and spend time at the Allen family farm in Clearville, PA. In addition to being an educator and inspiration to many, she presided over her home, instilling the love of entertaining and creative pursuits in her daughter, a tradition that has continued with her granddaughter. Her interest in others earned her the respect and affection of many valued friends.
Survivors include her daughter, Sharon Allen Gilder (Mark) of Gaithersburg, MD and her son, Thomas Reid Allen, of Montgomery Village, MD; one stepson, Richard A. Allen (Jane) of Dayton, MD; a sister, Elizabeth Barry of Clearwater, FL; a granddaughter, Jacqueline Gilder Brentzel (Nathan) of Frederick, MD; three great-grandchildren; and an extended family of step-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.
She is interred at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater. A graveside celebration of her life was held on October 9, 2021. Donations in her memory may be made to: Friends of Montgomery County Animals, Inc. (FMCA), P.O. Box 386, Germantown, MD 20875 or Brem Foundation to Defeat Breast Cancer, 8720 Georgia Avenue, Suite 302, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
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