BOSTON – Maynard E. “Al” Allen, 73, of Ipswich, Mass., died Thursday afternoon, Jan. 12, at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He was the husband of Barbara L. (Simpson) Allen.

He was born in Buckfield, on May 8, 1932, the son of the late Charles A. and Ione M. (Conant) Allen.

Al grew up in Maine and graduated from Mechanic Falls High School in 1950. He was a veteran of the Korean Conflict, having served in the U.S. Navy from 1951 until 1955. He and his wife were married in 1952 and were residents of Lynn until 1968, when they moved to Salem. They had been residents of Ipswich since 1987.

He and Barbara purchased the Ipswich News Co. in 1975, referred to by customers as the “Paper Store” in downtown Ipswich.

All of their children worked at the store at various times.

In 1980, he and his son, Michael, started the “Red Lion Smoke Shop” in downtown Salem. In the past several years, his younger son, John, has managed the Ipswich Paper Store since Al’s retirement in 1994. He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather.

He is survived by, in addition to his wife of Ipswich, two sons, Michael Allen, of Salem and John Allen, of Ipswich; a daughter, Patricia Allen, of Ipswich; one grandson, Jonathan Allen and two granddaughters, Sarah and Emma Allen, all of Ipswich; one sister and her husband, Betty and Norm Sawyer, of Wiscasset; two sisters-in-law, Beulah Allen and Madeline Allen, both of Maine; a brother-in-law and his wife, Herb and Terry Simpson, of Lynn; and his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Herbert Sr. and Lillian Simpson, also of Lynn.

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