Chapter I — Roots: The Allen Family Before Mike

Every family tree reaches back to a handful of names that anchor everything that follows. For the Allen family, those names are Albert Allen and his wife Nancy Elizabeth — born in 1864, died in 1937 — the couple whose lives in Oklahoma seeded the generations that eventually produced Mike Allen: geologist, bush pilot, and Vietnam veteran. The archive that survives them is spare but vivid: a scattering of photographs, a few annotated caption cards, a newspaper clipping, and a pair of grave markers that quietly hold the arithmetic of long lives. From these fragments, the earliest chapters of the Allen story can be glimpsed, if not fully told.

The oldest photograph in the collection carries a handwritten annotation that reads, simply, 'Albert Allen / Grandson / LeRoy / 1912–1913.' In it, a lean man in a wide-brimmed hat stands before a rustic outbuilding, cradling a small child in his arms. The image has the slightly formal, self-conscious quality of early-twentieth-century amateur photography — someone thought this moment worth preserving, and they were right. That infant is LeRoy Allen, who would grow up to become Roy Allen, Mike's father. Albert appears confident and unhurried, at ease in an outdoor world of log stumps and leafy trees.

Close-up of a flat granite grave marker inscribed "LEWIS BALDWIN OCT. 21. 1869 AUG. 25. 1957," set at ground level in a cemetery — The grave marker of Lewis Baldwin, inscribed 'Oct. 21. 1869 — Aug. 25. 1957,' photographed at a cemetery in the United States. Lewis Baldwin's connection to the Allen family is reflected in later generations bearing the Baldwin surname.

The Baldwin name runs alongside the Allen line through these early generations. A flat granite grave marker records the life of Lewis Baldwin, born October 21, 1869, and died August 25, 1957 — a span of nearly eighty-eight years that carried him from the Reconstruction era into the middle of the twentieth century. Another marker, for James Charles Baldwin, Specialist 5 in the U.S. Army, documents service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, with dates of 1925 to 1975. These stones, photographed in a quiet cemetery, testify to the tangled roots from which the Allen family grew.

Flat granite U.S. military grave marker for James Charles Baldwin, SP5 US Army, veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, 1925–1975, with an engraved cross in a circle at the top — The U.S. government-issued military grave marker of James Charles Baldwin, Specialist 5, U.S. Army, who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, 1925–1975.

The family's roots run deep in McCurtain County and Choctaw County, Oklahoma. A 1944 edition of The Broken Bow News — a McCurtain County, Oklahoma, newspaper — survives in the archive, its yellowed broadsheet pages dense with profiles of prominent African-American citizens of southeast Oklahoma. The paper's community-profile pieces illuminate the world the Allens inhabited: a rural, tightly knit network of landowners, educators, and working people in the red-dirt country of southeastern Oklahoma.

From the archiveA page from The Broken Bow News, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, dated February 18, 1944 — the world of southeast Oklahoma in which the Allen family's roots grew. A back-of-photo caption in the archive identifies a newspaper article in the collection as being about Roy Allen.

A marriage license preserved in the archive connects the family to Choctaw County, Oklahoma, more specifically. Issued on July 29, 1960, at Hugo, Oklahoma — the county seat of Choctaw County — the document bears the seal of the County Court and the signature of County Judge Eugene D. Ellis. The ceremony took place that same day, July 29, 1960, in Choctaw County, with two witnesses from Hugo. The license is recorded in Marriage Record Book 46, page 113. Though the specific parties named in the license are not fully legible in the archive's notes, the document itself is a tangible thread connecting the Allen family to the Oklahoma soil from which it sprang.

Official Oklahoma marriage license and certificate of marriage from Choctaw County, dated July 29, 1960, issued in Hugo, Oklahoma, lying flat on a wooden surface. — A marriage license issued July 29, 1960, in Hugo, Choctaw County, Oklahoma, bearing the seal of the County Court and the signature of County Judge Eugene D. Ellis. The document is recorded in Marriage Record Book 46, page 113.

Roy Allen — known in early family records as LeRoy, the infant cradled by Albert Allen in that 1912–1913 photograph — grew up to be a man of evident energy and ambition. A back-of-photo caption in the archive notes a newspaper article specifically about Roy Allen, and a second caption records 'Roy drives his mother to church, 1924,' suggesting a young man already taking on responsibility within the family. Another caption places him at Sequoia National Park, and yet another shows 'Roy and his son Mike on the Kern River' — evidence of a life that carried the Oklahoma roots westward, toward California.

A man in a shirt and tie stands on a sunny sidewalk in downtown Santa Maria, California, with 1930s-era parked cars and a hotel building behind him. — A young man stands on a sidewalk in what appears to be downtown Santa Maria, California, based on the 'SANTA MARIA' neon sign visible behind him. Mid-to-late 1930s vintage automobiles line the street. The image likely dates from the mid-to-late 1930s, consistent with the family's westward migration to California during that era.

A photograph that appears to have been taken in downtown Santa Maria, California — identifiable by a neon sign reading 'SANTA MARIA' in the background — places a young man amid the mid-to-late 1930s streetscape of that California town. Wide-leg trousers, a patterned necktie, and vintage sedans frame him against a commercial brick street, suggesting a family that had made its way from Oklahoma to the Central Coast of California, likely during the great westward migration of that decade. Whether this is Roy Allen or another family member, the archive does not explicitly state, but the image fits the chronology of the family's California beginnings.

A young man in denim overalls and a flat cap stands on a scrubby hillside, with rolling brush-covered hills in the background, in a sepia-toned vintage photograph. — A young male figure stands on a chaparral hillside, wearing bib overalls and a flat cap, in what appears to be a rural California or western United States setting. The sepia-toned photograph likely dates from the 1930s to 1950s.

Three men of different ages standing together on a rural dirt road in an arid landscape, sepia-toned photo with decorative border, likely 1930s–1940s American West — **From the archive**Three men of different generations stand together on what appears to be a rural road in an arid, open landscape. The sepia-toned photograph, with its bib overalls and work clothing, likely dates from the 1930s to 1940s — consistent with the era of the Allen family's Oklahoma and early California years.

The years between Oklahoma and California are captured in glimpses: three men standing on a sun-bleached road that stretches toward a flat horizon, utility poles fading into the distance; a solitary young figure on a scrubland hillside, bib overalls and flat cap against a pale sky. These images carry the textures of Depression-era America — the arid openness, the working clothes, the stoic postures of people making their way. Whether these are Allens, Baldwins, or family friends, the archive does not say with certainty, but they belong to the world Roy Allen came of age in.

A young person sitting in the open cockpit of a vintage fabric-covered light aircraft on an unpaved airfield, black-and-white photo circa 1930s–1940s. — A young man sits in the open cockpit of a small fabric-covered biplane on what appears to be an unpaved airfield, likely in the 1930s to 1940s. The image hints at an early fascination with flight that would later define the next generation of the Allen family.

One photograph in the chapter's collection hints at aviation's early hold on the family's imagination: a young man seated in the open cockpit of a fabric-covered biplane, arms crossed on the cockpit edge, posing with the ease of someone entirely comfortable in that world. The aircraft's tubular steel frame and wire bracing are consistent with light aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. Whether this is Roy Allen or another family member, the archive does not state explicitly — but the image resonates powerfully given what his son Mike Allen would go on to become: an Army Chinook pilot in Vietnam and a bush pilot in Alaska.

A young man in a leather jacket, bow tie, and flat cap stands in front of an old-style school bus with its door open, in a black-and-white photograph. — **From the archive**A young man in a leather jacket, bow tie, and driver's cap stands in front of a school bus with its door open behind him. The bus's rounded-nose design is consistent with late 1940s to mid-1950s American school bus manufacture.

Another photograph shows a sharp-dressed young man standing before a school bus, its 'SCHOOL BUS' sign prominent above the windshield. He wears a leather jacket, bow tie, and flat-top cap — attire that suggests both pride and personality. The archive's back-of-photo caption for a newspaper article notes it is specifically about Roy Allen, and the Broken Bow News page in the collection profiles outstanding citizens of southeast Oklahoma. The school bus image, whatever its precise subject, evokes the world of working African-American men in mid-twentieth-century America, men who wore their Sunday best to a weekday job and carried dignity into every frame.

A man in a fedora hat and a woman in a button-front dress stand together in front of a wooden clapboard house in a black-and-white snapshot, likely from the 1940s. — A man in a wide-brimmed fedora and a woman in a ruffled dress stand in front of a wooden clapboard house with a covered porch, likely in the 1940s. The warm, dry landscape and modest homestead are consistent with the Allen family's southern or midwestern roots.

Large group of men, women, and children posed outdoors near a vintage car in a rural setting, black-and-white photo circa late 1940s–mid-1950s — A large extended family group — approximately fifteen to seventeen people spanning several generations — gathers outdoors near a vintage late-1940s or early-1950s American sedan. The setting, clothing, and film stock suggest a family occasion in the rural American South or Midwest, consistent with the Allen family's Oklahoma roots.

Black-and-white group portrait of approximately 30–35 people of multiple generations posed outdoors on grass with trees behind them; handwritten names annotate the photo; two elderly men sit in folding chairs at the front. — A multi-generational family or community reunion portrait, with handwritten annotations identifying individuals. The partial date inscription on the photograph appears to read '197–,' suggesting a gathering in the mid-1970s. Handwritten text along the bottom margin appears to read 'BRANDLE RHONE' on the left.

The Allen family, like most families, is best understood not as a line of individuals but as a web of gatherings — reunions, funerals, Sunday dinners, road-side photographs. The archive preserves images of just such occasions: a large group posed in front of scrubby trees, elders seated in the foreground, children fidgeting at the edges; a later multi-generational portrait, rows of faces annotated in someone's careful handwriting, names placed over faces as if to anchor them against forgetting. These were people who showed up for one another, who drove long roads back to Oklahoma and California to stand together in the sun and be counted.

Grey granite double headstone for Lee Roy Allen (1911–1987) and Addie Etolia Baldwin Allen (b. 1917), married July 14, 1934, with a person's hand resting on top of the stone in a rural cemetery. — The double headstone of Lee Roy Allen and Addie Etolia Baldwin Allen, in a rural cemetery. The stone records Lee Roy Allen's dates as October 29, 1911 – June 22, 1987, and their marriage date as July 14, 1934. Addie Etolia Baldwin's birth date is recorded as August 1, 1917.

A woman in red and a man in a white athletic shirt kneel at an "ALLEN" family granite headstone in a green cemetery, with flowers placed on the monument. — Two people visit the Allen family headstone, which reads 'PARENTS OF LEE, PAULA, FRANCIS, MICHAEL ROY.' The woman appears to be writing in a notepad while touching the base of the stone; the man kneels behind it holding a bouquet of yellow and white flowers. The surrounding cemetery landscape is open and well-treed under a bright summer sky.

At the center of this chapter — its quiet conclusion — stand two headstones. The double marker for Lee Roy Allen and Addie Etolia Baldwin Allen records the facts plainly: Lee Roy, born October 29, 1911, died June 22, 1987; Addie Etolia Baldwin, born August 1, 1917. Married July 14, 1934. A second Allen family headstone bears the inscription 'PARENTS OF LEE, PAULA, FRANCIS, MICHAEL ROY' — and it is in that last name, Michael Roy, that the family history takes its decisive turn. The boy cradled by Albert Allen in 1912 became the man who drove his mother to church in 1924, who married Addie Baldwin in 1934, and who raised a son named Michael Roy Allen — a future Army pilot, Alaska bush pilot, and geologist — in the country between Oklahoma and California. These stones are where the roots end and the story begins.

Chapter I · All Photos · 15 images