A. Leonard Allen

Who was A. Leonard Allen?

Asa Leonard Allen was an educator, attorney, and member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Louisiana. He served eight terms as a Democrat from 1937–1953, having represented the now defunct Eighth Congressional District, centered about Alexandria.

Allen was born in a log cabin near Winnfield, the seat of Winn Parish, to Asa L. Allen and the former Sophronia Perkins. He was a younger brother of Governor Oscar Kelly Allen. He was educated in the Winn Parish public schools and received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1914. The next year, he married the former Lottie Mae Thompson, and they had two sons, Harwell L. Allen, who became a district judge, and Lyndon Blaine Allen.

Allen taught in the rural schools of neighboring Grant Parish from 1914-1917. He was a principal in schools in Georgetown and Verda near Montgomery. Thereafter, he became the superintendent of the Winn Parish system, 1917-1922. He studied law on his own, was admitted to the bar in 1922, and practiced in Winnfield, where he was city attorney for a time.

Allen was a prominent Baptist, who served a stint as vice-president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. He was a Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. He died in Winnfield on his 78th birthday and is interred at Winnfield Cemetery.