Lydia Karen Allen, an award-winning artist, lover of science fiction, and family matriarch, died Nov. 25 at Allisonville Meadows, a nursing home in Fishers, Ind. She was 70.
A longtime Toledo resident, Ms. Allen lived in the city until moving to Fishers after suffering a stroke in 2017, her daughter, Aimee Cole-Laramore, said. Ms. Allen died after contracting pneumonia.
“The city of Toledo was home and it was family,” Ms. Cole-Laramore said.
Ms. Allen was born June 19, 1950, in Toledo, to Hazel and Marshall Allen, Jr.
She graduated from St. Ursula Academy in 1968 and from the University of Toledo in 1972. At the university, she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha and remained a member of the sorority for 50 years.
She worked for Libbey, Inc., as a senior graphic design artist and later as design development supervisor.
For the Society of Glass and Ceramic Decorators, Ms. Allen had been both an artist and featured speaker, and she served as an art production specialist for the United Way of Greater Toledo.
“She felt art could transcend any limitation or any barrier,” Ms. Cole-Laramore said.
Specifically, Ms. Allen was deeply shaped by her experience at the Toledo Museum of Art, and she believed it to be the best art museum in the country.
“Her art legacy will actually go on for generations,” Ms. Cole-Laramore said, explaining how her love of art was passed to her children and grandchildren. “I cannot wait to see the impact these artists have on the world.”
In addition to art, Ms. Allen instilled the importance of education into her children — her daughter would go on to graduate from St. Ursula exactly 20 years after she did — and loved cooking and science fiction.
Her love of sci-fi was realized in a variety of ways, including several themed parties for her children.
“There’s not a Star Trek or Star Wars experience my brother or I have not had,” Ms. Cole-Laramore said.
Ms. Allen also loved to travel. She traveled throughout the country as part of showing her artwork in shows and did as much solo travel as she did travel with her children, her daughter said.
“New Orleans was a favorite for us as kids,” Ms. Cole-Laramore said. “The amount of memories that were given to us was just incredible.”
Because she was fiercely independent, Ms. Allen’s need to move away from Toledo after her stroke was a bittersweet time for the family, Ms. Cole-Laramore said.
Being so close to her family, though, allowed Ms. Allen to spend more time with them and have more experiences with grandchildren.
Her grandchildren, Ms. Cole-Laramore said, remember her dry sense of humor. She had long friendships, her daughter said, as several people who have known her for more than 50 years have reached out since her death.
“As a daughter, I’ll miss my biggest cheerleader,” Ms. Cole-Laramore said.
Survivors include sisters Marcia Allen and Katherine Taylor; daughter Aimee Cole-Laramore; son Brook Allen; and 11 grandchildren.
Visitation is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at Peace Chapel at Crown Hill Cemetery, 700 W. 38th St, Indianapolis, with funeral services to follow at noon.
The family asks that any tributes be made to Alpha Kappa Alpha Educational Advancement Foundation, Inc., or to the Toledo Museum of Art.
First Published December 7, 2020, 5:00 a.m.