Elden Daniel Allison

Elden Daniel Allison was the only child of Roy and Florence Allison. He was born in Laramie, Wyoming on March 27, 1925 and died on November 22, 2016 at Good Samaritan in Loveland, Colorado. During the Great Depression years, he lived with his parents and Florence’s parents at Gray’s Gable in Laramie as caretakers of the golf course and log club house. This is where Elden acquired his life-long love of golfing and ballroom dancing!

Elden attended several schools in Wyoming before his dad was transferred to Scottsbluff, Nebraska where he started high school and his participation in sports. He lettered three years on the basketball team and played on the state championship team his junior year.

In March of 1943, after two quarters at the University of Wyoming on a basketball scholarship, Elden turned 18 and joined the Navy. He was assigned to the Medical Corp on the troop transport ship USS Edgecombe and later the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, which was sent to the Pacific Theater during WWII. He served until March of 1946, then returned to Laramie and completed his business degree.

On June 13, 1948, Elden married Marilyn Humbert in Laramie. He started working for the JCPenney company, but was called back to service for 18 months during the Korean War. Elden worked for Penney’s in Laramie, then in the Colorado stores in Fort Collins, Boulder and Wray before managing the Loveland store in July of 1963. During his 20 years at the Loveland Penneys, he was a member of Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Loveland Recreation board and one of the organizers of the first Downtown Merchants Association.

After his retirement, he and Marilyn moved to Estes Park where they both continued to enjoy playing golf, skiing, dancing, traveling and hiking as they had when they were raising their four children. They became “snowbirds” in the winter in Arizona as they moved several more times to Montana and Utah before settling back in Colorado.

Elden is survived by his wife, Marilyn, of 68 years, his son Dennis (Stacy) Allison of Ojai, CA; his three daughters Alayne (Bill) Nicol of Red Lodge, MT; Laurie (Steve) Anderson of Berthoud; and Judy (Rand) Marshall of Taos, NM. He was also blessed with nine grandchildren: Suzanne (Tyson) Hull, Emmy (Tim Phillips) and Matthew (Amanda) Anderson of Berthoud; William (Nelly), Chad (Shanna), Julie and Kari Nicol; and Robin and Molly Allison and eleven great-grandchildren.

A private military service was held at Resthaven Memory Gardens in Loveland on November 23, 2016. Elden was a loving, humble, hard-working, honest family man who was proud to serve his country and his community. It was with sad hearts that his family said goodbye.