Ezra Leo Allen was born in Kentucky on June 16, 1915. He was the son of Rev. Ivy Twyman Allen and Betty Mariah DeSpain Allen; he had an elder sister Mabel (b. 1913) and younger sisters Edith (b. 1917) and Esther (b. 1920). He married Dorothy Schmidt on July 26, 1934; their child James (Jimmy) Leo was born September 9, 1935. Ezra Allen attended grade school in Albany, Kentucky, until 1928, and high schools in Jamestown (1928-1931) and Salina, Kansas, graduating from Salina in June 1932. He attended Kansas Wesleyan University 1932-1934. From January 1936 until Conference in October of that year, he served under L. E. Cooke in the Hays District: Portis 1936; Arnold-Utica, April - September 1936; Prairie Grove – Ash Grove 1936; Lindsborg – Bridgeport 1937. From 1937 to 1939 he attended Bethany College, where he received his A.B. He also later attended S.M.U. School of Theology. Rev. Allen was admitted to full membership in the Central Kansas Conference and ordained Deacon October 27, 1940, by Bishop Holt, North Texas Conference. He served as a U.S. Navy chaplain in the Second World War and transferred to the Texas Conference in 1942. Rev. Allen died June 12, 1976, in Texas; he is buried next to his wife in Memorial Garden Cemetery, Colorado Springs, Colorado. His memoir is in Texas Conference Journal for 1977, page 311.

Note written by Sarah St. John