Lillie LaNelle Hendrix Allen, 83, of Burleson, passed away the evening of Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Plano, Texas.

The family will receive friends from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Sunday, October 18th at Lunn’s Colonial Funeral Home in Wichita Falls. Funeral services will be at 1:00 p.m. Monday, October 19th at Lunn’s Colonial Funeral Home, with Pastor Jacob Harrell of Lamar Baptist Church officiating. Burial will follow at Crestview Memorial Park in Wichita Falls under the direction of Lunn’s Colonial Funeral Home.

LaNelle was born February 8, 1943, in Boswell, Izard County, Arkansas, the sixth of seven children of Henry Forster Hendrix and Tabitha Gracie Layton Hendrix. She grew up in Calico Rock, Arkansas, and graduated from Calico Rock High School in 1960, where her classmates voted her “Wittiest Girl.” After high school, she attended cosmetology college in Arizona.

On December 18, 1961, she married James Edward “Jim” Allen in Carlsbad, New Mexico. They shared 39 years of marriage until Jim’s death in 2001. Their sons, Bill and Paul, were born in Wichita Falls, Texas. Jim’s coaching career then took the family to several towns across Texas before they returned to settle in Wichita Falls.

A licensed cosmetologist for most of her life, LaNelle worked in beauty shops in the early years, wherever the family lived, to help support the household. After her sons reached high school, she worked as a teacher’s aide at Fowler Elementary School until her retirement. Married to an educator, she believed deeply in education. She taught Bill and Paul to read before they ever started school, and she loved reading herself, often trading books with friends. She was a smart lady with a great wit and sense of humor.

LaNelle was a caring Christian woman and a wonderful wife and mother. She was a member of Lamar Baptist Church for more than 40 years, where she served in many volunteer roles, including treasurer of her Sunday School class. She loved music, especially gospel music, and she played the piano and sang, filling her home with joyful songs of Jesus and Heaven. To her grandchildren she was “Nana,” and she treasured every moment with them.

After Jim’s passing, she continued to live independently in Wichita Falls until 2022, when she moved to Burleson to be near her sons and family.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Jim; her parents, Henry and Tabitha Hendrix; her sisters, Bethel Jean Shay and Erelene Davis; and her brother, Harold Hendrix.

She is survived by her sons, William “Bill” Dade Allen and wife Charmion of Crowley, Texas, and Paul Christopher Allen and wife Nicola of Lewisville, Texas; grandchildren William Andrew Allen and wife Kyler, Jessicca Shelby Jones and husband Matt, Christopher James Allen, and Nicholas Karl Allen; her sister Ardean McDowell of Meridian, Texas; her brother Noel Hendrix of Alamogordo, New Mexico; her sister Armilda Tyree of Elizabeth, Arkansas; and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.lunnscolonial.com.