Brian Jones: “I would like to take a few moments to remember and honor Maryon Pittman Allen, a former Member of this body, who passed…”

“I would like to take a few moments to remember and honor Maryon Pittman Allen, a former Member of this body, who passed away on July 23, 2018. Maryon Allen was one of only two women ever to represent the State of Alabama in the U.S. Senate. Born in Meridian, MS, in 1925, Maryon Pittman and her family moved to Alabama in 1926 in order for her father to open a Caterpillar tractor franchise. She grew up in Birmingham, attending Avondale School and Ramsay High School, before matriculating at the University of Alabama, where she planned to major in journalism. While in college, she met and married her first husband, attorney Joshua Mullins, and they had three children. After the marriage ended in divorce in 1959, Maryon entered the workforce, first as a secretary, then in insurance sales, and eventually putting her journalism training to use writing for the ``Shades Valley Sun'' as society editor. In the 1960s, Maryon joined the Birmingham News as women's editor. Two weeks into her new job, she drove to Montgomery to interview then- Lieutenant Governor James B. Allen in connection with a speech he had delivered to the Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs. She and Allen, a widower with two children, were instantly attracted to each other and married in August 1964, after a whirlwind, 4-month courtship. When Alabama Senator Lister Hill chose not to seek reelection to the U.S. Senate in 1968, Jim Allen sought and won election to his seat.…”