Allen Wood a citizen who did Warren County proud
I recently received notice that a noted native citizen of Warren County died in Corpus Christi, Texas on May 16, 2003. Mr. Allen Wood had been in ill health for some three years. Born Jan. 14, 1906 in the house on Viola Road now lived in by the Neal Cox family, he attended the Bonner and Brookside schools and graduated from McMinnville High School in 1923. Entering David Lipscomb College, he graduated in 1925, and then entered the University of Tennessee, graduating in 1929.
Allen then moved to Alexandria, La., teaching school and obtaining a master’s degree in English. In 1932 he moved to Austin, Texas and entered law school. Upon graduation from the University of Texas Law School, he moved to Corpus Christi, Texas where he remained the rest of his life except for a period in World War II when he served in the United States Navy.
From 1929, when he left the state of Tennessee, until 1998, he never failed to return to McMinnville to see relatives and friends. He loved his hometown, its people and especially Ben Lomond Mountain.
A noted writer of poetry, he published several books, and had one of the most complete library collections of Tennessee and Warren County histories I have had the pleasure of seeing.
A copy of his early life, “Life on a Warren County Farm: 1906-1923” is on file at Magness Library. It is a jewel!
James A. Dillon Jr.
A friend and admirer
Nashville Highway
McMinnville