The Allen Family Heritage
Allen preferred to use the first initial "L", rather than the unusual name "Littleberry." He was "Calhoun Allen" or "L. Calhoun Allen, Jr.," to the public, not "Littleberry Allen" or some other combination. "Littleberry" had been his grandfather, who was born in Virginia in 1862 and had relocated to Alabama and then to Shreveport near the end of the 19th century. Littleberry Calhoun Allen, Sr., who used the designation "L. C. Allen", was a businessman, a Shreveport city council member, a grand master of the Masonic lodge, and a Baptist, who staunchly opposed liquor use and sales to the extent that he would support Prohibition Party causes and candidates, rather than the heavily favored Democratic nominees. L. C. Allen established what became Allen Manufacturing Company and Caddo Lumber Company. Littleberry Allen had a son, L. C. Allen, Jr. Littleberry Allen died of Bright's disease early in the 20th century. Therefore, L. Calhoun Allen was really L. Calhoun Allen, III, but he used "Jr.," instead because his contemporaries did not know his grandfather as "L.C. Allen, I." And Calhoun Allen named his son "L. Calhoun Allen, III".
Allen, a Shreveport native, graduated in 1938 from C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport. For a time, the Episcopalian Allen attended Roman Catholic-affiliated Tulane University in New Orleans. However, he graduated from the Methodist-affiliated Centenary College in Shreveport. He also attended Louisiana State University Law School in Baton Rouge. He was associated with Allen Construction Company until he became utilities commissioner in 1962.
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