 son of Rev. Andrew Franklin Allen and Jim Ella Hale Allen |
From "West Nashville Its People and Environs"
permission of Sarah Foster Kelley
Dr. Allen bought a residence at the northwest corner of Forty-seventh and Charlotte Avenue, where the couple made their home for a number of years. His wife, Lena, was born the daughter of ABSALOM PAGE and SALLY ALICE (HOOPER) DOZIER.
Dr. Rufus had a general practice in West Nashville and delivered babies throughout the community.
Doctor Allen delivered Hazel STRINGFELLOW, now MRS. CECIL VANCE, when she was born. He was her family's doctor. She stated that the good doctor was the most kind and compassionate man. The Stringfellows lived on Alabama Avenue behind the Allen residence. Hazel loved Doctor Allen's black servant named AUNT VIOLET. As a young girl Hazel remembered that the lady would sit on the back steps of the Allen home and smoke her pipe. She told Hazel old tales that interested her young ears. In the rear yard were the stables and barn where Doctor Allen kept his horse and buggy. The physician always drove his hack to visit his patients, which was pulled by a mare named Ethel. He was loved by everyone who knew him.
After some thirteen years in medical practice in West Nashville, he died in 1919 at the age of forty-six years; relatively a young man. He was a member of the Woodsmen of the World Lodge in West Nashville and that organization marked his grave at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville after his death. Doctor and Mrs. Allen left no children.