Is there anyone in Allen, Texas who can speak about our town’s history with more authority than Iva Mae Morrow? I don’t think so. Sure, there may be folks who remember Allen when it was a one stoplight town but Miss Iva Mae remembers when there was no stoplight – not even a car in Allen. That’s because the lifelong resident is approaching her 102nd birthday this year.
To put this in perspective, Teddy Roosevelt was president and the Cubs won the World Series the year Iva Mae Miller was born on a farm in northwest Allen - 1907.
Her father died unexpectedly of typhoid fever when she was 6 years old leaving her mother to raise five girls, four boys and one more girl who would arrive three months later.
She attended the new red brick school at Belmont and Cedar Streets which had opened only three years earlier in 1910.
“We walked four miles into school each day,” explained Morrow. “If the weather was bad we might ride in the wagon but most times we just walked and walked.”
Once again to gain perspective; the intersection of Custer and McDermott Roads is four miles from downtown Allen.
She graduated from the same two story school and lived with an older sister and her husband before getting married at 22 to Bemon Morrow.
The couple was first introduced at a funeral, she explained.
“He was one of the pall bearers and when I saw him I said that’s the man for me. We went on a date two weeks later at the Ritz Theater in McKinney. He was a real honey – the nicest man you would ever meet.”
“We drove to Oklahoma (Durant) with my sister and her husband and got married,” she continued. “We gave the preacher $5 and bought rings for $5 and that left $5 to live on.”
Iva Mae and Bemon moved to a farm in Lucas and lived there for two years. “We came into town every two weeks in his old car. We often had to stop and patch the tires just so we could get home.”
They later moved back into Allen where Bemon worked as a butcher at the grocery store in town.
The depression hit Allen as hard as any small town but no one seemed to notice, she said. “Everybody was in the same situation – no one had money so we just did what we could.”
Life wasn’t much easier during World War II. Bemon kept his job and Iva Mae sold hamburgers for a quarter to the high school kids out of her house at lunchtime. The small business helped her get her first electric refrigerator.
The couple raised two children, Doyle and Linda who graduated from Allen.
She brought her cooking talents to the Allen School at the age of 51 and worked for 30 more years with Lois Curtis, the food service manager.
“There were 125 kids in the school when I started working there,” she said. “Lois and I would arrive early and start peeling potatoes and making rolls.”
Every lunch was a home cooked meal as Iva Mae and Lois dished out chicken fried steak, meatloaf, corn bread and fried chicken based on their home recipes.
In addition to her school duties, she worked for many years in the nursery at Allen’s First Baptist Church. There wasn’t a child in Allen who didn’t know Iva Mae from church or school.
Surprisingly healthy and active for the age of 101, Iva Mae offers no secret to her good health..
“I never drank and never smoked,” she admitted. “I have taken a One A Day vitamin every day so maybe that’s it.”
“I’ve lived here all my life and loved every minute it,” she added. “I loved the schools and I loved all the people in this town.”
I think Miss Iva Mae Morrow deserves one big group hug from the hundreds; make that thousands; of lives she has touched since the Cubs won that world series back in 1907.
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