Mary Virginia Allen

Mary Virginia Allen, Ph.D. of Summerville, SC, entered into eternal rest on the morning of October 15, 2011.  The relatives and friends are invited to attend her memorial service at The Villages of Summerville, 2:00 pm Sunday, October 23, 2011.  A graveside service will be held in Forest Lawn, Richmond, VA, Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 3:00 pm.

Miss Allen was born November 11, 1914 in Dinwiddie County, VA, the daughter of the Reverend Francis Maury Allen and Virginia "Jennie" Pope Allen.  In 1919 Dr. Allen and his family moved to Clarksville, VA, where he became the pastor of the Presbyterian Church.  Mary Virginia graduated in 1931 from the high school there.  The following autumn, she entered Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA and in 1935 received her B.A. degree with a major in French.

She studied at the Universit? de Toulouse, France from 1936-1937 and earned her M.A. degree from the French School of Middlebury College in Vermont in 1938.  After teaching French in high schools in Easley, SC and Charlotte, NC, she returned to teach at Agnes Scott College, her alma mater, in 1948.

Mary Virginia received her Ph.D. in Romance Languages in 1954 at the University of Virginia, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  From 1954 to 1979 she was a professor of French and then chairman of the French department at Agnes Scott College.  After her retirement, she continued to live at her home in Decatur, GA.  She was an elder in the Presbyterian Church and one of the founders of the DeKalb Humane Society.  She is a retired member of the Board of Trustees of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur.

In 1990, Dr. Allen moved to Cooper Hall in Mt. Pleasant, SC and joined the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church that same year.  Following Cooper Hall, she moved to The Villages of Summerville and became a member of the Presbyterian Church on Edisto Island.

Mary Virginia is survived by several cousins, among whom are William Dudley Allen, Jr., of Wilsons, VA and Mrs. Carolina Pope Boineau, of Edisto Island, SC and a close friend, Dr. M. Virginia Tuggle of Decatur, GA.

Arrangements by J. HENRY STUHR, INC., DOWNTOWN CHAPEL.