Lewis Gayle Allen

Lewis Gayle Allen, age 83, departed this life on March 6, 2020, in Baltimore, MD. He entered this life on February 19, 1937 in Nashville, TN to the late Lewis R. Allen and Mary Yates Allen (aka as Papa and Nanny) He is survived by: Daughter Lisa Sachse, and her husband Steve, (Baltimore)

Grandson Jake and his fiancée Becca Reilly (Baltimore), “Bonus grandkids” Chris Sachse, Travis Sachse and Keegan Biondino and six great grandchildren, all in Baltimore Sisters Mary Jo Fagan and Cindy Conte, both in Nashville, Was oldest of 3, and only son Three nephews Bruce Fagan, David Fagan and Adam Weaver (in Nashville) and niece Gina Grantham (Atlanta).

Lewis grew up in Nashville in the Woodbine area, attending Turner Elementary School and graduated from Hume Fogg High School in 1955. He enjoyed playing baseball and basketball and hanging out with his friends like Jimmy Anderson went on to Draughon’s Business College in Nashville, taking business courses (very good student), but real talent and interest was in art and photography.

In the 60’s, he began working for Sun Records in Nashville, designing artwork for albums and promotions and doing tons of photography work. In his spare time he loved to paint and work on perfecting his photography skills, loved shooting wedding photos on the weekends and spending time in Nanny and Papa’s backyard on Veritas Street watching Lisa and her cousins play – kickball, hide and seek, etc. and eating Nanny’s cornbread and Papa’s homemade ice cream.

Lewis continued working in record industry but eventually left to work in sales, primarily for a paper company – he enjoyed meeting new people and had a knack for the “gift of gab”.

In the late 1980’s he suffered a stroke, which significantly impacted his right side (leg and arm) and took away his ability to draw and paint as he had before. He took it upon himself to relearn how to paint with his disability and painted several beautiful pictures over the next couple of years that he took great pride in Moved to Woodstock GA around 1990 to live with his Mom and be close by to his sister Cindy and her family.

He taught photography classes at a community college there and thoroughly enjoyed meeting the students and mentoring their interest in photography. He officially retired in mid 2000s, remaining in Woodstock until death of his Mom in 2006. He then moved to Baltimore to live with Lisa and her family in Baltimore.

He thought it was going to snow most of the year there and hated leaving the sunny warm south, but was very happy that he was able to spend time with her and her family. Besides the weather, he had to give up his daily visits to Burger Inn in Woodstock, trading his old hangout for the local McDonalds in Maryland

He loved computers and enjoyed learning as much as he could about various programs – was interested in writing.

Lewis loved all of the action at Lisa’s house – his grandson Jake usually had a minimum of 7-8 guys every weekend over as their house was the “central meeting point” from middle school through high school. One of Jake’s friends who was born and raised in Atlanta lived with them for the last two years of high school, so he enjoyed talking to him about the Marietta Square and the Big Chicken.

As he got older, health continued to decline and at the end of 2015 he contracted pneumonia and was hospitalized. He was sent in early 2016 from the hospital to a rehab and nursing home facility about 3 miles from Lisa’s house. The plan was for him to get strong enough to come back and live with her but due to his fragile physical condition and progressive vascular dementia he was unable to and remained at the facility until his death. He enjoyed spending holidays with Lisa’s family and going out to eat with them, particularly the annual Father’s Day Breakfast at Ashland Café. He literally cleaned his plate every time, and there was a lot of food on that plate!

Lisa and her family visited with him several times a week at the facility and even though it wasn’t his old home, he made the best of it. There were many family pictures on his bulletin board and he saved most greeting cards he received during those years, particularly those from his sisters Mary Jo and Cindy

Became interested in writing and had been working on a short story since 2017. He started drawing again on a sketch pad last year which was great occupational therapy. As his dementia became worse, it was difficult to really focus on completing these projects, but he took great joy in trying.