May 22, 2002
Mildred Allen receives local history honor
97-year-old Traverse City resident to be named Historian of the Year
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
It's an awesome hat, an ostrich-feather-plumed showstopper.
Mrs. Hannah's hat, proudly worn by Mildred Allen, is an annual tradition in the area at the Lilac Tea or the National Cherry Festival Heritage Parade. Allen acquired Hannah's hat, plus her gold brocade wedding dress, as a loan to wear in area style shows. Allen said the hat is from France while two Traverse City sisters who had a seamstress shop at 8th and Union made the dress.
Allen did not intend to keep the hat and dress, but the family did not want them back after Mrs. Hannah died.
"When she died I called the family but they told me they didn't mean anything to them and to keep them," Allen said. "Some day I will give them to the funeral home (Jonkhoff-Reynolds Funeral Home) because they belong there, not with my family."
In honor of her historical ties stretching back to Traverse City's founding, plus her many years of service in the community, Allen will be named Historian of the Year Thursday evening at the annual banquet of the Grand Traverse Pioneer and Historical Society.
Allen served on the board of the Pioneer Study Center and later the Grand Traverse Pioneer and Historical Society for 20 years. The society decided that this year it was time to recognize her loyalty to the society.
"She's dedicated and shows up as long as possible and adds her opinion when the opportunity arises," said Steve Harold, an archivist with the Grand Traverse Pioneer and Historical Society who has volunteered with Allen for many years.
Allen, 97, and her husband, Clarence, were married more than 70 years before he died four years ago. The two met in Allen's hometown of Vernon, when Clarence came to her father's store looking for directions to the local school superintendent's office to ask for a job.
"It was love at first sight, he never left me after that," said Allen, who was married in 1923.
After brief stops in Flint and Okemos, the couple moved to the area more than 60 years ago and raised their two children here. Clarence Allen was a teacher here for 35 years, including 17 at Oak Park Elementary School.
Allen has helped with the National Cherry Festival over the years and also founded Oak Park Mother Singers, a group of 17 women who sang around the state. Allen was one of six people who helped found the Northwest Michigan Artists and Craftsmen (now the Grand Traverse Art Center).
"We used to meet in the maid's quarters in back of Shelde's," Allen recalled.
One of Allen's many community projects over the years was a 15-minute daily radio show called PTA Report about school happenings that she put together in the 1950s. Merlin Dumbrille, public service director at WTCM radio station, hosted the program.
"She is a great historian, knows a lot of the information and lived through that time so she could relate what happened in the early years in Traverse City," Dumbrille said.
In addition to her volunteer work, Allen always held down a job. Over the years she worked at Milliken's, as a substitute teacher; she retired from a position at the former Union Office Supply. She also wrote for the Detroit Free Press in the 1950s.
"I always had to work because a teacher's salary wasn't what it is now," she said.
Allen is also an active member of the Central United Methodist Church.
"I've done about everything in church but preach and they won't let me do that because I talk too long," she said.
With five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, Allen attributes her longevity to her love of people.
"The main thing is I like people, I still do," she said. "Life has been interesting."
The Historian of the Year Banquet will be held at 6:30 on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center's Community Meeting room. For more information, call the Heritage Center at 995-0310.