Ralph Howard ALLRED

Allred Lineage:   Ralph Howard, Elisha Herman, Dilbert Hyrum, Paulinus Harvey, Isaac, William, Thomas, Solomon born 1680 England

Born: 06/09/1923 Lehi, UT
Died: 08/19 /2010

Submitted by: Sharon Allred Jessop 05/04/1999
Written by Mary Helen Allred, January 19, 1995

Ralph Howard Allred was born June 9, 1923 at Lehi, Utah the fourth child and third son of Herman and Ada Allred. He grew up on a ranch near the Jordan River doing the usual boyhood things of fishing, and hunting, ice skating on the pond near the house, feeding the animals and doing chores. During the severe winters the family moved to town and eventually that is where they stayed. As he grew older he entered school where he was an excellent student. He learned to play the coronet in the school band, was his High School senior class president and according to his high school football coach he was the best man on the team “pound for pound” even though he only weighed 130 pounds! He also played tennis and in college was on the BYU tennis team.

During high school he dated some but never any one seriously. His first date was with Maurine Russon. During the summers he and his friends and cousins would earn money doing just about any kind of work that they could fine - even harvesting onions! After high school he was awarded a scholarship to BYU where he studied Chemistry. His best friend at this time and in high school was Don Johnson who was later killed during WWII when the plane he was flying crashed. His college days were interrupted by the war and he served in the Army Air Corp. During this time he was sent to Camp Sibert in Attalla, Alabama where he met Louise Radford.

Frances Louise Radford was born June 26, 1923 in Gadsden, Alabama the tenth child and sixth daughter of George and Ada Radford. She was born in the house that she and Ralph now live in. She had a typical - for the times - childhood with many good memories -being a butterfly in a school play in the second grade (she was disappointed because she was a purple butterfly instead of the pink one that she wanted to be!), playing with he brothers and sisters, playing on a ferris wheel that her daddy made, going on trips and eating bologna sandwiches in the car, but probably her most favorite thing to do was to climb out of the upstairs window of the house onto the roof of the porch and hide in the branches of the big oak tree in the yard and read. Her favorite subjects in school were geography and history. After high school she went to Gadsden Business College and after her training was hired by Benjamin Kahn to be his personal secretary in spite of the fact that for her interview she wore a purple dress, a red hat and navy blue shoes!

It was during this time that Louise and her girlfriends would go to convention hall and be hostesses and dance with the soldiers at Camp Siebert during WWII. This is how she and Ralph met. She said that every time she turned around there he was asking her to dance. She thought he was so good looking, so neat, blonde, very polite and looked so clean cut. He got her phone number but since he didn’t write it down she was afraid he wouldn’t call but for her “I was smitten from the start and told the girls at work the next day that I had met the man I was going to marry!”

They only had one date before Ralph was shipped out to Maine and that was to dinner and a show. They had made arrangements to go to a ball game another time but somehow they got their wires crossed and missed each other - both were at the game but never found each other. They wrote for a year before they became engaged. Ralph wrote her a letter telling her he was sending a box of candy and when it came it was an engagement ring. They still have all of those love letters and they are so beautifully written that they would bring a tear to the eye of any romantic. They visited each other in New Hampshire where he was stationed and in Gadsden where Louise lived. Daddy do you remember when you were driving Grandpa Radford downtown and he told you to turn up and didn’t know whether he meant right or left?

They were engaged for another year before they got married on June 9, 1945 at 12:30 PM on a Saturday in Manchester, New Hampshire. Louise was so nervous that when she took off her engagement ring to put on her wedding ring that she dropped it and it rolled under the judges desk and they all had to get down on their hands and knees to hunt for it. And after the ceremony they and their witnesses Neal and Geri Monihan got down to their car and noticed that the clerk had put Neal and Geri’s names on the marriage certificate instead of theirs. Mother do you remember being so upset thinking that you would have to get married in the green checked cotton dress that you wore on the train up from Alabama because your truck didn’t arrive on time? The trunk finally arrived and according to Daddy and your wedding pictures you were a beautiful bride. After a small surprise wedding reception given by their landlady Lillian Pike they drove to Concord, New Hampshire for dinner at a little Inn out in the country.

Do you remember the little apartment with two rooms and a bath that had the refrigerator and table in the bedroom and on a shelf over the bath rub a small oven and a hot plate? Mother do you remember the time you were cooking a roast and when you took it out of the oven you dropped it into the bathtub but since it was an expensive piece of meat you just wiped it off and served it?

In August of 1945 Ralph was sent to California preparatory to being sent overseas and Louise went home to Alabama. He never had to go and was discharged in February 1946. He came to get Louise by way of Utah and a short visit with his folks.

After a few weeks in Alabama they bought a 1939 Dodge and went to Florida and then on to Lehi, Utah to live. That was a memorable trip as Louise was pregnant at the time and they had to stop every few miles for her to throw up, but they had to make sure that they stopped on a hill so that they could coast down the other side to get the car going again. After they arrived in Utah the car just died and never started again.

They lived in Lehi while Ralph was going to BYU. This was where Camille was born on November 28, 1946 which was a wonderful way for them to celebrate their first Thanksgiving together. When Camille was about six months old they came to Alabama for a visit and decided to stay--maybe because when mother was in Utah she cried because the mountains were keeping her from coming home to Alabama!

They rented a two bedroom apartment from Louise’s folks and Louise went back to work for Mr. Kuhn and Ralph got a job there too. They lived there until 1949 when they bought their first home at 2207 Cansler Avenue. By this time Louise was a full-time homemaker and Ralph was working at Republic Steel. Daddy do you remember the time that you drove to work and when you got off you forgot that you had the car that day and walked all the way home and just as you reached home you realized that you had driven to work and was so embarrassed that you walked in the front door of the house and out the back, down the back alley and back to the plant and got the car and drove home. You thought you had made a clean get away except Grandma and Grandpa Radford were sitting on their front porch and saw the whole thing. You really got razzed about it.

On May 31, 1949 Mary Helen was born in Gadsden at the old Baptist Hospital. Ralph was in the waiting room and the nurse came out and said to another nurse “that woman in there is having twins!’. Of course they then almost had to do CPR on Ralph. As it turned out there was another woman in the delivery room the same time as mother.

On October 30, 1952 mother was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints and that same day was set apart at Relief Society president. Since that time they have both served faithfully in numerous callings such as Seminary teachers, Young Women’s President, Sunday School teachers, Primary Counselor, Music Director, Ward Librarian (a calling that mother has had for over 20 years!), and Daddy has served as Branch President or Bishop for an equal length of time.

On August 3, 1953 Karen was born in Gadsden and cried for the fist six years of her life if mother was ever out of her sight. When she was six she had to have her appendix out and mother stayed at the hospital for six days and nights and the one time she tried to come home and get a bite to eat and rest a little Karen screamed so loud that by the time mother drove from the hospital to home (about 10 minutes) the nurses were on the phone calling begging her to come back.

On June 16, 1954 the whole family was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. Karen was just a baby and when they kept her in the nursery in the temple they let her play with dominoes while she cried (naturally) and her hands and face were covered with black when they brought her into the sealing room. It was a special moment for the whole family.

The years rolled on by with many, many good times and a few bad times until on September 11, 1957 Annette was born. She was a very good baby (quite a break after the last one!) And loved everyone and everything.

Time continued to roll on until July 21, 1964 when David was born - the youngest and only son. We never could figure out who was the most excited the night that David was born Daddy or the doctor. The next morning in Sunday School JW Moats announced that Bro. Allred had a boy as though mother had nothing to do with it!

Then in August 1972 two new additions were added to our family and Jean and Myra were adopted necessitating a larger home which was made available when Ralph and Louise purchased the home that Louise was born and reared in at 2210 Cansler Avenue. There was a lot of work to be done on it with Daddy doing the majority even while working full-time at the steel plant, being bishop and a father. He accomplished a lot and never neglected any aspects of his callings. In June of 1974 Myra and Jean accompanied by the whole family were sealed to Mother and Daddy and became an eternal part of the family.

Time marched on with Ralph and Louise staying busy with church and family responsibilities and Ralph still working as a metallurgist at Republic Steel until he retired in January 1982.

The children have all grown up and now have children of their own. Camille and her husband Danny Browning have five children Bethanne a sophomore at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, and Leanne, Jonathan, Benjamin and Samuel all still at home. They live in their newly remodeled home in Attalla, Alabama.

Mary Helen’s son Jackie is presently serving a mission for the church in Anchorage Alaska. She lives down the street from mother and daddy and helps keep them in line!

Karen and her husband Marc Carswell live in their newly remodeled home in Rainbow City. Karen’s daughter Julie is in college and son Kevin is now married and he and his wife Patti are the proud parents of 8 month old Jamie Dakota Grant.

Myra and her husband Steve Dodd also live in Rainbow City. Myra’s daughter Christa is also in college and her son Seth and her daughter Alesa are still at home along with Myra and Steve’s son Devon.

Jean and her husband Gary Gattis live in Middleburg, Florida. Their daughter April is living in New York and is the proud mother of a 3 week old baby boy. Son Gabriel and daughter Breanne are still at home.

Annette and her daughter Jennifer live in Warren Michigan where they both work for Jem Automatics. Annette’s son Michael lives with his father in Okinawa.

David and his wife Paula live in Attalla with their son Christopher and daughter Kayla and are expecting sometime in August.

In 1987 Ralph and Louise closed up their house and left for Mt. Shasta, California where they served as Missionaries for the Church for 1 year. They were the first couples missionaries from our Stake and also from our Ward to serve a full-time mission. They had many choice experiences and made close friends there and were it not for the time involved we would relate some great stories to you.

They have served their church, their family and their community with honor and pride and diligence and we as your children, your grandchildren, your sons and daughter in law, your friends, and your associates want to thank you and express our love and appreciation for your tireless devotion to helping make us the people that we are today. Many of us owe our very existence to you and we salute you! We look forward to many, many more years of association with you.