Career
An amateur actress, she played the title role in the musical "Mame" in productions by the Westminster Community Theater and Sebastian"s West in the early 1970s. Allen was first elected to the California State Assembly in 1982 when she unseated Democratic incumbent Chet Wray. She compiled a relatively conservative record with special attention to environmental protection for her coastal district.
Republicans gained a one-vote majority the House in 1995, threatening longtime Democratic Speaker Willie Brown"s 15 year hold on power.
Brown at first persuaded moderate Republican turned Independent Paul Horcher to keep him in power. Meanwhile Allen was running in a special election for her State Senate seat.
Allen lost the election challenge. When Horcher was recalled from office and replaced by a more loyal Republican, Speaker Brown convinced a still-angry Allen to vote with Democrats and become Speaker herself, though Brown continued to lead the legislative body as head of the Democratic Caucus.
Before her removal, Allen resigned as Speaker and handed the gavel over to another Republican who backed Brown, Brian Setencich.
However, when Brown resigned his seat in the State Assembly to be sworn in as mayor of San Francisco, Setencich lost that vote, restoring the Republicans" majority and allowing them to elect Pringle as Speaker in January 1996. Setencich himself was defeated for reelection in that June"s Grand Old Party primary. Following her recall, Allen turned her back on politics, and eventually moved away from California, though she did make one last quixotic bid for her old seat in 1998.
Allen died of stomach and colon cancer at her home in Colorado Springs on September 22, 1999.
