Farmer, community activist, municipal official.
Born at Carberry on 29 August 1896, the twelfth child of James and Lorena Rose, she lived all over western Canada while growing up. After graduating from high school, she attended the Saskatoon Normal School then taught for three years before attending business college. She then studied shorthand and typing at the Angus School of Commerce at Saskatoon.
On 1 January 1923, she married William James “Bill” Allen (1893-1933) at Saskatoon and they homesteaded in the Pineview district of Saskatchewan. During this period, they had four children: Verna May Allen (1925-2015, wife of Doug Watson), Laurie Edwin Allen (1927-2002), Lorena Rose Allen (1930-1996, wife of Arthur J. Frenette), and Keith Allen (husband of Lynn). After her husband’s death, she supported her four children through the 1930s by operating a chicken farm, for which she won awards for egg-laying performance. The family home was destroyed by fire in 1946 so they moved to a farm southeast of Eriksdale where she continued raising chickens for a time. In 1946, she was made a Member of the British Empire.
She served as Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Eriksdale (1947-1949), believed to the first women to hold this senior administrative position in Manitoba. She was a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation candidate for the St. George constituency in a December 1956 provincial by-election.
She died at Eriksdale on 8 May 1993 and was buried in the Eriksdale Cemetery.
“Winners in the Manitoba egg-laying contest,” Brandon Sun, 25 October 1935, page 8.
“Forty Manitobans inducted in Dominion Day honour list,” Winnipeg Free Press, 1 July 1946, page 1.
“St. George by-election may be an indicator,” Winnipeg Tribune, 1 December 1956, page 24.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 12 May 1993, page 40.
Obituary [Lorena Rose Frenette], Winnipeg Free Press, 19 February 1996, page 13.
Beyond Beginnings by Eriksdale Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee, 1996, pages 254-255.
Obituary [Laurie Edwin Allen], Winnipeg Free Press, 25 November 2002.
Obituary [Verna May Watson], Winnipeg Free Press, 22 September 2015.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 22 September 2025
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