PORTLAND – Eleanor Davy Allen passed away at The Barron Center on Sunday, May 3. Her family had recently celebrated her 100th birthday with her.

She was the daughter of Josephine Hutchins Davy and Harry George Davy of Winchester, Mass., and the wife of Claude L. Allen Jr., who was headmaster of Hebron Academy from 1945 to 1972. She was the mother of Connie Allen Eastburn of Doylestown, Pa., Peter Allen of South Paris and Jane Allen Smith of Kennebunk. She was the sister of Constance Davy of Winchester, Mass., and Harry G. Davy Jr., who died in World War II. She was the grandmother of 13 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.

She attended The Buckingham School in Cambridge, Mass., Harcum Junior College in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and Wheelock College in Brookline, Mass.

On June 28, 1933, she married Claude and spent 12 years in Deerfield, Mass., where he was on the faculty of Deerfield Academy and she became actively involved in the role of faculty wife. In 1945, they moved to Hebron, where Claude was given one year to re-open Hebron Academy, which had been closed for three years during World War II. It happened and with Eleanor’s participation in many ways inspite of the loss of her brother in April of that year and the birth of her youngest child in July.

She was an outstanding headmaster’s wife who was involved in many facets of the school. She had a very comfortable relationship with the students. One graduate of Hebron shared publicly at her honorary induction into the Hebron Academy Board of Trustees that he had lost his mother just prior to his entering the school, and she had served as a surrogate mother to him-a sentiment echoing the personal feelings of many young men and a witness to her warmth and compassion. For the 27 years that Claude was headmaster, she was expected to have dinner every night with the students and gladly did. For many of those years of her tenure in Hebron, she was the librarian of Hebron Academy which was a position that she enjoyed immensely.

She enjoyed many hobbies and activities throughout her life. She gardened with enthusiasm, read widely and was particularly fond of non-fiction, appreciated music and theatre, and took many trips with her sister and friends. She accomplished extensive research into the genealogies of both the Allen and Davy families. She was also very adept at needlepoint. She truly loved animals great and small, especially dogs. She was a skilled and avid bridge player into her late 80s as well as a tireless volunteer for the Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway. She was a member of the Hebron Baptist Church for more than 50 years.

Finally, her entire family would like to thank the staff of The Barron Center who provided such wonderful care for her for nearly 5 years.


Share your condolences, kind words and remembrances below. You must be logged into the website to comment. Subscribers, please login. Not a subscriber? Register to comment for free or subscribe to support our work.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.