Mary Elizabeth Allen, daughter of Munson Harmon Land and Ruth Elizabeth Lane, was born April 25, 1924, in Washington, D.C.  She died July 5, 2003.

Mary Elizabeth graduated from Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA, in 1946, and began working on the staff of Georgetown Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. where she met and later, on September 25, 1948, married Jonathan Harvey Allen who predeceased her September 18, 1999.

By 1951, she and Jonathan settled in Dallas County where they reared these children who survive them: Jonathan Harvey Allen, Jr. of Bryan; Miriam Virginia Homoleski of Cedar Hill; Thomas Lane Allen of Lancaster; Daniel Reeves Allen of Thomaston, Maine; Ruth Elizabeth Sharp of Waco; Stephen Pyron Allen of Lancaster; Mary Esther Horton of Waldo, Arkansas; and Priscilla Louise Archibald of Lancaster.

Mary Elizabeth gave her time to her children, their spouses and her 21 grandchildren.  She was an avid reader who loved to travel, a loyal friend, a supporter of conservative political causes and Christian ministries, a keen business manager and an animal lover who through the years provided a caring home for abandoned dogs and cats.

She was a member of the PTA during her children's school days, the First Presbyterian Church of Lancaster, and the Lancaster Shakespeare Club.

Mary Elizabeth will be remembered as a woman who, like the woman in Proverbs 31, did her husband good and not evil all the days of her life; a woman who extended her hand to the needy; whose clothing was strength and honor; who watched over the ways of her household, not eating the bread of idleness; who spoke wisdom, upon whose lips was the law of kindness; and a woman who loved and feared the Lord.  Her children, their spouses and her grandchildren rise up and call her blessed.