Allene W. Terrell

Allene White Terrell of Norman, Oklahoma, passed away March 25, 2023, at the age of 88.

Allene was born March 15, 1935, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to parents, Eugenia Mandeville and Floyd White.  The family later moved to Chickasha, Oklahoma, where Allene grew up on a 440-acre working ranch, the home of Desert Gold, a world champion walking horse.  The ranch and home were built by her grandfather, Malcolm C. Mandeville, a Pennsylvania oil man who moved to Oklahoma and brought the first spinning drill bit.

The oldest of three children, Allene had two brothers, Malcolm Mandeville and Craig Mandeville.  She attended school in Chickasha before enrolling in Hockaday School for Girls in Dallas, Texas, a college preparatory school for young women of strong potential.  After graduation, she went to Stephen’s College, a private women’s college in Columbia, Missouri, to study fashion design.

On March 31, 1956, in Chickasha, Allene married Ernest P. Terrell Jr., also of Chickasha, a young officer in the U.S. Army (Field Artillery) and decorated Korean War veteran.  The couple soon welcomed the first of three children, Teresa, Ernest III, and Linda.

Her husband’s career took the family across the United States to California, Alaska, Texas, Kansas, and Virginia, and to two foreign countries, the Philippines, and West Germany.  She held the family together while enduring two tours by Ernest in Vietnam.  She went to Vietnam at the height of the war to visit Ernest near the Cambodian border.  Allene was an integral member of a group of wives who comforted those who lost their spouses in the war. 

Allene was a tireless volunteer with exceptional organizational skills.  As an officer’s wife, she led many projects and planned numerous events over the years.  She continued to work and volunteer even after retirement at Falconhead located outside of Marietta, Oklahoma, where they lived for 26 years.  There she was president of the Falconhead Ladies Golf Association and a local election official for Love County.  She also worked for Bancfirst of Marietta.

Allene always put her family first, but also had special interests such as gardening, birds, and her dogs, Romeo, Windy, and Thunder.  Her social talents reemerged upon her move last year to Sooner Station, where she shared her convivial people skills orchestrating many resident activities. 

She was preceded in death by her husband, Col. Ernest Pierce Terrell Jr.; and her brother, Malcolm Craig Mandeville.

Her survivors are her brother, Lt. Col. (ret.) Craig Mandeville of Norman; daughter, Teresa Terrell Studer and her husband William F. Studer Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas; son, Ernest Pierce Terrell, III and his partner Esther Helen Stinson of Oklahoma City; daughter Linda Allene Terrell and her husband David Evert Wilson of Norman; grandson, Colin Earl Thompson and his wife Yoriko Matsuda of Tokyo, Japan; granddaughter, Amanda Allene Bliss and her husband Tejas Patil of Denver, Colorado; grandson, Stefan Pierce Dowling Terrell and his wife Valerie Juliet Terrell of Tulsa; granddaughter, Briana Bliss Fewell and her husband Gregory Michael Fewell of Norman; and grandson, Cooper Jackson Terrell of Norman.

In lieu of flowers, please send a donation in her memory to the Norman Christmas Day Community Dinner Foundation, c/o Cindy Magarian, 1301 Presidio Drive Norman, OK 73072-2020.