MARY ELLEN "MARIE" ALLEN McDermott

Mary Ellen "Marie" Allen McDermott was born on April 27, 1892 in Houtzdale, Pennsylvania. She had beautiful wavy, auburn hair, fair skin and twinkling blue eyes. Her father, Cornelius Allen was twenty-four and her mother, Laura Baumgardner Allen was twenty-one at the time of her birth. Marie was baptized at St. Lawrence Church and her godparents were her father's brother David Doran and her mother's sister Nell Baumgardner.

Con Allen was a coal miner but when Marie was three, he decided he needed a more stable occupation for his three children - Marie, Tom and Ralph. He opened a shoe store on Main Street in Houtzdale and invented a special boot for miners which was a big success.

The Allen house was next to a convent and Marie started her education there with the nuns. She also took piano lessons from the Sisters and became quite accomplished. She loved to play the piano at all the birthday parties where her friends would gather around and sing. She also was part of the Allen Family Orchestra that entertained at many events in the town. One Houtzdale newspaper wrote, "Houtzdale's Big Minstrel Show A Very Pronounced Success...musical numbers given by Thomas, Ralph, Charles, and Edmund, accompanied by their sister Marie, on the piano were well executed and enthusiastically received; they were brought back for several encores."

Although they always had a maid, a lot of Marie's time was spent helping her mother with housework and taking care of her brothers and sisters - now Tom, Ralph, Charlie, Ed, Elymra, Ida, Laura and Punch. She attended Houtzdale High School but transferred to Clearfield when her father became sheriff of Clearfield County and the family moved into the upper story of the jail in Clearfield. Marie remembered that on Saturday evenings she and her brothers and sisters climbed down the stairs to the dark jail basement and performed a concert for the prisoners. This was the only form of entertainment for the inmates and they loved it. On one occasion her parents went on a weekend trip leaving Marie, as the oldest member of the family, in charge. One inmate took this opportunity to loosen the bricks of his cell and escape down the nearby river. He was eventually recaptured by Con, who brought him back with his hands tied behind him and in leg chains because he was so upset that the prisoner left while Marie was in charge.

When Marie was seventeen the family moved to DuBois, Pennsylvania. Her sister Elymra told Joan that Marie had lots of friends and beautiful clothes and that she would travel on the train several times a year to Pittsburgh with her girlfriends to buy clothes at Hornes.

Minstrel Shows and Silent Movies were a major entertainment at this time and Marie played the piano for both. She had a job taking down the numbers of the railroad cars that went through town and also she helped out at the shoe store. She remembers her father as being very strict. She was required to come home by 9 p.m. but one night she and her friends were discovered walking home at 9:15. Her father came up to her and took her by the ear all the way home. She had to stay in her room all weekend except for mass. However, Marie adored her father and they enjoyed seeing baseball games together. Later in life, after Marie was married, Con would visit her for a week when the World Series was on and the two of them would root and holler for their teams by the radio.

Marie went to the Villa Marie College in Erie, Penn. for two years and continued her musical training. A newspaper clipping from the proud parents scrapbook, "DuBois Girl Honored...Miss Allen had the honor of winning a gold medal presented yearly to the student excelling on the piano. This is an honor of which any one may well feel proud as the Saint Marie Academy has the reputation of turning out some exceptionally clever piano students. Miss Allen was a graduate this year." During her college years Marie met two dear school chums, Margaret and Peg Lennon who lived in Olean, N.Y. They had many escapades together and remained close friends until their deaths. These ladies were especially helpful when Marie married and moved to Olean. They and their husbands partied at each others houses, played bridge, and traveled together. Their children and grandchildren are still good friends in the year 2000.

Marie's trip to Washington, D.C. in 1916 with her father and other Postmasters for a Convention was a highlight for her. She played the piano on the train while they all sang. While her mother Laura stayed home with the twelve children, Marie and her father attended a luncheon at the White House with President Wilson. This was a thrill! and a story retold through the years.

During the First World War the girls in DuBois drew names and wrote to the doughboys in Europe. Marie's pen pal was Charles McDermott and a romance by mail ensued. Charles was a corporal and an engineer who helped to build railroads in France, to carry up supplies to the front. When Charles returned after the war, he looked Marie up and in August 1922 they were married by Father McGibney at St. Catherine's Church in DuBois with over a hundred guests in attendance.

Marie and Charles came to live in Olean, N.Y. at 29 Euclid Avenue with his mother, Barbara Fisher McDermott, who had grown up on a farm in Pennsylvania. Charles' father Michael McDermott, was born in DuBois, PA in 1856 and the family home was at the site of the present Post DuBois Office.

Marie's brother Ralph came to Olean after his WWI service and married a local girl Aileen Dugan. Charles and Ralph became business partners and opened the Allen and McDermott Boot Shop at 326 South Union Street near the Olean House Hotel.

Two beautiful daughters were born to Marie and Charles at 29 Euclid Avenue in the mid 1920s - Lolly and Jean. When Ralph Allen's wife Aileen died in childbirth, their infant daughter, also Aileen, came to live with Marie whom she always called Mother. Aileen was dearly loved and always thought of as a sister. A year after Aileens's arrival at the McDermotts', new baby Joan was born to Marie and Charlie.

Charles and Ralph jointly owned the shoe store until 1930 when Con Allen wrote sons Ralph and Ed to come home and help with the shoe store in DuBois. The partnership broke up and Charles became a salesman of a nail restorer "Manacea" manufactured by his Aunt Laura Jane Fisher. Charlie traveled all week and the girls remember when their Dad came home on Saturday evening their mother would dress them in their best and would sit on the couch awaiting his arrival. He always brought gifts or toys!

When WWII broke out and since gas was scarce Charles came off the road. During the war he worked as an engineer at Clark Brothers in Olean that made compressors for the war. At last he was able to come home every night. Charles decided to stay after the war days and retired in 1967 from Clark Brothers.

Marie loved to read and play bridge. She volunteered at the General Hospital for years as a hostess and would take magazines and books around on a cart to cheer up the patients. She had a sunny, cheerful way and was always the life of every party. She belonged to the Catholic Daughters of America and the Hibernians and played the organ to St. Johns Church in Olean. Marie was the only one in her group of bridge friends that could drive so she became everyone's chauffeur.

Marie and Charles traveled several times to Canada and Mexico. When the girls were little they all went on vacations to Florida where Marie's father had a home for several years. They would go by train to New York City and take a boat to Florida. It wasn't easy to travel with those four little girls! One of Marie's favorites was to go on picnics out in the country with Charles and the children. Charles belonged to the Knights of Columbus and went on yearly retreats at St. Bonaventure College. He relaxed by fishing and painting. Many of his primitive pictures reside in the homes of his children.

In 1966, at the age of 74, Marie passed away in an Olean hospital; and in 1974, age 86, Charlie died and both are buried in St. Catherine's Cemetery in DuBois. Marie is remembered for her beauty, talent, and kind thoughtful ways. Her girls remember their home as a childhood place of gaiety and filled with happiness...for friends and family alike.