Eleanor Allen Nelson, 89, the youngest and last surviving child of Dr. Forrest “Phog” Allen and his wife, Bessie, died peacefully on May 18, 2011, at the Sweet Life at Rosehill in Shawnee. Private graveside services will be held at the family plot in Lawrence. Eleanor was an intelligent woman with a wry sense of humor, as well as a devoted wife, mother, and daughter. She was understandably proud of her parents and credited her mother, Bessie, with being the strong force that helped her father accomplish all that he did. Eleanor’s career as an administrative assistant to the superintendent of Culver Military Academy in Culver, Ind., was cut short by her parents’ failing health when she returned to Lawrence to care for them in their later years. When asked once about the origin of Dr. Allen’s nickname of “Phog,” she said it came from the days when he used to umpire baseball. He apparently bellowed out the “strike” and “ball” calls in a way that sounded like a fog horn. Eleanor attended the University of Kansas, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, and then followed her brother to Pennsylvania where she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1972, she married Bentley A. Nelson M.D., who preceded her in death on March 25, 2011. They were long-time members of Mission Hills Country Club. Eleanor is survived by a daughter, Candace (Greg) Osborn, Palo Alto, California, and a son, John Allen Glenn, Topeka. She is also survived by a step-son, Bryan (Karen) Nelson M.D., Shawnee, and seven grandchildren. The family requests no flowers. If you would like to remember Eleanor, she would have liked to have helped animals with donations given in her name to Animal Haven in Merriam. The family would like to thank the staff at Sweet Life at Rosehill for the care given to Eleanor during her stay.
Legacy I shall leave you the sun
and wind and rain
Blue waters dancing
upon the stone.
Stars in the night,
and a song for the road;
With these you will never walk alone.
I shall leave you the
field and wood and sea.
For until the days shall be no more
A thrush will sing
in the hawthorn bough,
And far tides race
to the waiting shore.
— Katherine Edelman
Arr.: Signature Funerals, 8019 State Line Road, Kansas City, MO 64114, (816) 214-5174; www.cathyb6.sg-host.com.