Oscar Kelly Allen

O.K. Allen was raised on a family farm near Winnfield, Louisiana. He attended public school before attending business courses in Missouri, and Trinity College in Waxahachie, Texas. It was in Texas that Allen was first initiated an Entered Apprentice at the Waxahachie Lodge No. 90 on March 27, 1909. Allen was passed to the degree of Fellowcraft one month later, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason one month after that, on May 24, 1909.

Allen taught in local schools, worked as a merchant, and invested in real estate and oil ventures, becoming a prominent businessman with strong ties to religious and social circles within the community. Allen demitted from the Waxahachie lodge in 1915 and affiliated with the Eastern Star Lodge No. 151 in Winnfield on January 8, 1916.

Allen was a lifelong friend, personally and politically, of Huey P. and Earl K. Long. Huey Long appointed Allen as the Chairman of the Louisiana Highway Commission, where he oversaw Long's highway and bridge construction program. Allen was also Long's chosen successor for governor of the state, and it was widely believed that Long played a large hand in the governance of Louisiana during Allen's term. Allen himself even called his administration the Long-Allen administration. After serving only one term as governor, Allen ran for, and was elected to, the U.S. Senate in 1936, but he died only one week after winning the election.