Death date: Oct 15, 2013
Mrs. Frances Wilkerson Allen, age 92, of Old Hickory, passed away on October 15, 2013. She was preceded in death by husbands, Carl Wilkerson and Baxter Allen; her parents, Vinnie and Walter McCaleb; and her brother J.W. McCaleb. Read Obituary
I love you Aunt Frances
There is no single word in our language to describe how wonderful this woman was. She went by many names, Frances, Alice, Mrs. Wilkerson, Mrs. Allen, Mother, Momma, Mom, Sister, Daughter, Granny and for me, simply Grandmother. There are so many memories I could share. From cherished Christmas Eve's spent at her house with the family to weddings, birthday's, graduations....she was always there. However, there is one particular memory that comes to mind. It was about 4 maybe 5 yrs ago, I was on my way back home from visiting with the family and I stopped by to see her on my way out. We sat there and chit chatted for bit then I told her I better get on the road and as she always did, she said "Honey I hate to see you go, Grandmother misses ya but I know you need to get on the road before it gets to late". But for some reason that day I decided not to leave but to stay for a little while longer.She started telling me stories, stories of her growing up and of other significant events in her life. But it was the one of how her and Grandpa became owners of the barber shop that was most interesting. She said Grandpa had recently returned from Africa where he had been stationed during WWII. She said he had came home one evening from working at the barber shop and was not in the best of moods. He had two other partners and apparently he wasn't happy with a change that the other two were wanting to make. It disturbed him greatly, to the point that he didn't really know what to do. Grandmother said she told him " Lets just buy them out and own the shop outright". She said he was aggravated by that because she knew as well as he did that there was no way they could afford that. Well dear Grandmother had a bitter sweet surprise....for the entire time Grandpa was at war, she never spent one penny of his paychecks she got in the mail, she saved every cent. She told him what she had done and that he could go right back to the shop and write them a check. And that's how they became the owners of the barber shop.
That was the last one-on-one I had with Grandmother and one of the fondest memories I have of her, just her and I sitting on the couch at her house talking. I love You Grandmother!!!
