Julia Mae Lum Allen
Published 12:00 pm Friday, October 8, 2010
Julia Mae Lum Allen, a long-time resident of Claiborne County, died in Grenada, Miss., on Oct. 6, 2010, at 101 years of age.
She spent her last years at Graceland Retirement Home in Grenada, near the home of her daughter, Nancy Allen Smith. Julia Mae had been married for 77 years to James Upton Allen, who died at Graceland in 2008, at age 99, after an active lifetime in Port Gibson. They were both involved in community affairs.
Julia Mae was born Jan. 11, 1909, in Claiborne County, the fourth of seven children of Robert Clinton and Julia Fox Lum. She was a charter member of The Order of the First Families of Mississippi, as her ancestors came to the area before Mississippi became a state, establishing a homestead at Foster’s Mound in Jefferson County. She became the bookkeeper of Chamberlain Hunt Academy in Port Gibson, in the 1940s and served in the capacity for many years. She and her husband loved to travel and made many trips with the automobile dealers’ associations, and in their later years, with the Airstream and Mississippi trailer clubs. They both were devoted and active members of the Port Gibson United Methodist Church.
Julia Allen is survived by her daughters, Judy Allen Bracken of McKinney, Texas, and Nancy Allen Smith of Grenada; granddaughters, Patricia and Catherine Bracken of Hurst and Plano, Texas, and Leigh Allen of Dallas; grandsons Kent and Douglas Bracken of Plano and Dallas, and Allen Smith of Grenada; and five great-grandchildren, all of Texas; sister-in-law Martha Brady Lum of Port Gibson; nephews Douglas Lum of Port Gibson, Gadi Lum of Tampa, Fla., Robert Lum of Atlanta, David Lum of Oregon and Christopher Lum of Douglasville, Ga.; nieces, Anne Lum Linder of Memphis, Catherine Lum Cupp of Hilliard, Ohio, Sandra Lum Knellinger of Jackson and Deborah Lum Purviance of Port Gibson.
Visitation will be at Port Gibson United Methodist Church at 1 p.m. Saturday. Services will be at the church at 2, with interment to follow at Wintergreen Cemetery, also in Port Gibson.
Memorials may be directed to Chamberlain Hunt Academy.
Garner-Harper Funeral Home of Grenada will be in charge.