Elaine Z. Allen

Elaine Zimmerman Allen passed away on January 26th at the age of 74 at Glen Meadows Retirement Community after a decade-long battle with Lewy Body Disease. Elaine was born October 2, 1938, 20 minutes after her twin sister, Marian in York, Pennsylvania. At the age of two, the family moved from York to Linthicum, Maryland where Elaine grew up. She graduated from Brooklyn Park High School in 1956, having been involved in school plays and musicals and a member of the cheerleading squad.

Elaine graduated from what was then Towson State Teachers College in 1960 and started a life-long career as a school teacher. She started teaching in Baltimore County and then spent 25 years in the Harford County School system. Her favorite grade to teach was kindergarten and she delighted in having hundreds of students at Old Post Road Elementary, Forest Hill Elementary and Youth's Benefit Elementary School before retiring in 1998 to spend time with her grandchildren.

Elaine met her husband, Bruce Allen, at Towson State and they married in December 1961. They were a devoted couple for over 50 years and had two daughters, Leslie Elaine and Sarah Louise. They built a lovely family home in Forest Hill, Maryland and lived there for nearly thirty years.

Elaine was an incredibly talented person. She was a master seamstress and knitter, a prolific gardener, a great baker, and she spent hours drawing, painting, and creating for her classroom and her children and friends. She played tennis, was a devoted amateur genealogist, and loved to entertain friends and families. She was a life-long volunteer for the League of Women Voters, the United Methodist Church, and the Girl Scouts.

Elaine is survived by her sister, Marian Richardson of Monkton, MD; her brother and his wife, Jack and Pat Zimmerman of Beaufort, SC; daughters, Leslie Allen and husband, James Brache, of Boulder, Colorado; Sarah Loeffler and husband, Brian, of Baltimore, MD; and grandchildren, Isabella, Leila and Phoebe Brache and Sam, Tim and Lucy Loeffler.

The family asks that donations in memory be made to The Neuropsychiatry Fund at Sheppard Pratt Health System c/o Sheppard Pratt Philanthropy Office, 6501 N. Charles Street, Towson, MD 21204 or at www.givetosheppardpratt.org.