Regina Mae Heatherington was born in 1916 to Clarence and Nora Heatherington of Hutchinson, Kansas. Her father was a minister of the Evangelical United Brethren Church in the Kansas Conference; as a result of his appointments, Regina lived in several Kansas communities as a young girl, including Woodston, Independence, and Lawrence. She graduated from Lawrence Memorial High School and earned her B.A. from York United Brethren College, York, Nebraska (1946) and her Master’s in Library Science at Emporia State Teachers College (1967). She worked actively in the Women’s Society of World Service and the National Mission Board; she was also an ordained deaconess in the Evangelical U. B. Church. Regina married Garland Allen on August 14, 1958, at Emmetsburg, Iowa. He died in 1962. Two years later, Regina moved to Medicine Lodge and served as Librarian and Media Specialist there until her retirement in 1980. She was inducted into Who’s Who of American Women (1975) and the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame (1984). Regina joined the Medicine Lodge United Methodist Church in January, 1965. Her many responsibilities there included lay leader, chairperson of the Council on Ministries, and editor of the “Update” newsletter. Regina Allen died on October 21, 1988, in Medicine Lodge. She is buried next to her husband Garland Allen in the Fairview Cemetery, Greensburg, Kiowa County, Kansas. Her memoir can be found in the Kansas West Conference Journal for 1989, page 325.

Note written by Sarah St. John