Nancy Jean (Gray) Allen

On Saturday, October 20, 2018, Nancy Jean Allen (Gray), loving mother of three boys and wife of 55 years passed away at age 78 at the Wyngate Senior living community in Barboursville, W.Va. Nancy was born on November 19, 1939 in Carthage, N.Y., to Harold Gray and Alice Mullin.  She earned her degree Home Economics from Cornell University in 1961, and then moved to New York City to work for Abraham and Strauss department store. In 1962 She met a young man named John Owen Allen from Bentonville, Ark., at a Halloween party in NYC. On August 3, 1963, she Married John and they eventually moved to Huntington W.Va. where they raised their three sons John, Andrew, and Michael. Nancy loved life and her family.  She felt as at home in a beautiful gown at the Greenbriar talking with powerbrokers and business magnets as she did knee deep in a septic tank hosing filth.  She was smart, funny, and always made everyone around her feel welcome and good about themselves.  Never one to take herself too seriously, she was always willing to poke fun at herself, and often at anyone within earshot. Nancy was preceded in death by her father, Harold, her mother Alice, and her brother Robert. She is survived by her sister Marcia Blunden, husband John, and her three children as well as three grandchildren, Laura, John and Juliet, one great granddaughter Olivia, and many nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held in her home town of Carthage, N.Y. at a later date.