Oscar K. Allen
{{Short description|Governor of Louisiana from 1932 to 1936}}
{{About|the American politician|the Australian rules footballer|Oscar Allen (footballer)}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name= Oscar Allen
|image= Oscar K. Allen.jpg
|order= 42nd Governor of Louisiana
|term_start= May 10, 1932
|term_end= January 28, 1936
|lieutenant= John B. Fournet
Thomas Wingate
James Noe
|predecessor= Alvin Olin King
|successor= James A. Noe
|office1=Member of the Louisiana State Senate
from Caldwell, Grant, La Salle, and Winn parishes
|term_start1=1928
|term_end1=1928Louisiana State Senate records show Allen as a senator only in 1928, but he actually served unconstitutionally until 1930, when the Louisiana Supreme Court struck down his right to hold both legislative and executive offices simultaneously.
|predecessor1=Henry E. Hardtner
|successor1=James Anderson
|birth_name= Oscar Kelly Allen
|birth_date= {{birth date|1882|8|8}}
|birth_place= Winn Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
|death_date= {{death date and age|1936|1|28|1882|8|8}}
|death_place= Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.
|party= Democratic
|education=Trinity University (BA)
}}
Image:O.K. Allen Building, ULL, Lafayette, LA IMG 5015.JPG was renovated in 2011 and now houses the Saucier Wellness Center.]]
Oscar Kelly Allen Sr. (August 8, 1882 – January 28, 1936), also known as O. K. Allen, was the 42nd Governor of Louisiana from 1932 to 1936.
Career
He was elected to the Louisiana state Senate in 1928 in the wake of Huey Long's landslide victory in the gubernatorial election. He defeated the anti-Long incumbent, former Republican Henry E. Hardtner of La Salle Parish. Allen served as Long's floor leader in the Senate; he was also appointed by the governor as chairman of the Louisiana Highway Commission, serving from 1928 until 1930. His appointment was legally challenged. In the litigation that reached the Louisiana Supreme Court, it ruled that holding both legislative and executive positions simultaneously was unconstitutional. Allen resigned as chairman.
Allen was elected governor in the shadow of Huey Long, who had resigned after being elected as US Senator from Louisiana and relocated to Washington, D.C.. Allen was considered a political stooge for former governor Long. His brother Earl Long once joked that a leaf blew into Allen's office one day and that he signed it, thinking it was legislation from Long.{{cite web|url=http://www.lahistory.org/site25.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225173835/http://lahistory.org/site25.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 25, 2010|title=Heywood, Walter Scott|publisher=Louisiana Historical Association|work=A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography|access-date=January 30, 2011}}
Death and honors
Allen died in the governor's mansion of a brain hemorrhage. One week before his death, he won the Democratic nomination in the special election to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Senate caused by Huey Long's assassination.
Allen was the namesake of the O.K. Allen Bridge across the Red River between Alexandria and Pineville. The bridge was imploded on September 26, 2015, due to construction on a new bridge to be named the Curtis-Coleman Memorial Bridge.{{Cite web|last=Sharkey|first=Richard|title=UPDATE: O.K. Allen Bridge splashes down into history|url=https://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/2015/09/26/ok-allen-bridge-splashes-down-into-history/72815232/|access-date=2022-01-30|website=The Town Talk|language=en-US}}
The former governor is honored, along with his predecessor, by the Huey P. Long–O. K. Allen Bridge, which carries U.S. 190 (Airline Highway) across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, as well as the Long-Allen Bridge over the Red River between Shreveport and Bossier City, among others.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/la/winn/obits/obit3/alngov36.txt Winn Parish Enterprise, from 1/30/36, on Gov. Allen's funeral and obituary]
- [http://www.sos.la.gov/HistoricalResources/AboutLouisiana/LouisianaGovernors1877-Present/Pages/OscarKAllen.aspx "Oscar Kelly Allen 1932-1936"], State of Louisiana - Biography.
- [http://la-cemeteries.com/Governors/Allen,%20Oscar%20Kelly/Allen,%20Oscar%20Kelly.shtml Cemetery Memorial] by La-Cemeteries
"Oscar K. Allen," A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. I (1988), p. 10
{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|rows=2|before=Huey Long}}
{{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for Governor of Louisiana|years=1932}}
{{s-aft|after=Richard W. Leche}}
{{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from Louisiana
(Class 2)|years=1936}}
{{s-aft|after=Rose McConnell Long}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box |title=Governor of Louisiana | before=Alvin Olin King| after=James A. Noe | years=May 10, 1932–January 28, 1936}}
{{end}}
{{Governors of Louisiana}}
{{Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Oscar}}
Category:People from Winn Parish, Louisiana
Category:Baptists from Louisiana
Category:Democratic Party governors of Louisiana
Category:Farmers from Louisiana
Category:Businesspeople from Louisiana
Category:Educators from Louisiana
Category:Trinity University (Texas) alumni
Category:20th-century Louisiana politicians
Category:People from Pleasant Hill, Sabine Parish, Louisiana