Obituary of Margarethe Lydia Allen

Margarethe Lydia Allen of Bellingham died on September 19, 2018 after a brief illness. She was born in Neudorf, Saskatchewan, Canada, the daughter of John Jacob Litzenberger, and Lydia Miller. The family eventually moved to a farm near Atwater, Sask. She became a registered nurse, married Willis Allen of Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, worked as a nurse in various hospitals, including the Grey Nuns in Regina, where she taught nursing. She relocated to Riverview, Michigan in 1964 to work with her brother Donald J. Litzenberger, MD. As a young woman she played the piano and accordion at local dances. She also enjoyed singing, drawing, painting watercolors, ballroom dancing, bird watching (especially the chickadees in her back yard), and tractor pulls. In her sixties, she was married a second time to Ken Atterbury. She is survived by two children from her first marriage, Richard Willis Wesley Allen of San Diego, California, Deborah Allen of the Bronx, New York, a sister, Catherine Rawson of Hamilton, Montana, and a niece, Carol Rawson, of Canmore, Alberta. A funeral service will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 2530 Cornwall Avenue in Bellingham on Sunday September 23rd at 2pm.