Associative Relationship

• Allen family (Associative with Related, Family)

  Description

  Civic leader Ruth Larson Allen, who helped her husband, Dr. George A. Allen, organize the Salt Lake Zoo-logical Society, died Wednesday. Mrs. Allen was 91. Mrs. Allen was born in Chicago in 1894. She graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and became a fashion illustrator for that city's most noted department stores. In 1920 she came west to marry Dr. Allen, of Clinton, Ill., who had just completed schooling at the University of Illinois as a physician and surgeon. When Dr. Allen formed the local zoological society and became its first president, Mrs. Allen turned her artistic talents to making special publications and programs to help promote the zoo. In 1931 the couple moved to what is now known as Allen Park, 1865 S. 1300 East, where Mrs. Allen lived until short before her death. Dr. and Mrs. Allen were instrumental in organizing the committee for building the Sugarhouse Monument, raising most of the funds during the depression. Mrs. Allen became an outstanding wildlife artist after she and Dr. Allen founded the Aviculturists', Zoologists' and Conservationists' Gazette, with their son George. Mrs. Allen was preceded in death by her husband and one daughter, Cecelia Salley Gear. Survivors include two daughters, Amy Allen Price, Salt Lake City, and Mary Rose Allen Ryan, South Pasadena, Calif.; one son, George A. Allen, Jr.; and seven grandchildren.