Nelson Allen
American politician (1933–2005)
Nelson Robert Allen (October 27, 1933–April 28, 2005) was a former Kentucky state Senator renowned for his commitment to education. Allen was a resident of Greenup County, KY. He was born in Hueysville, Kentucky, Floyd County, Kentucky and received a master's degree in Education as well as an honorary doctorate from Morehead State University. He was also a Navy veteran of the Korean War.
Allen was elected to the state Senate in 1973 from the 18th District (which includes Greenup, Carter, Lewis, Mason, Bracken, and Robertson Counties) and served until 1991. He was chairman of the Senate Education Committee from 1976 to 1990 and was among the legislators most involved in crafting the landmark 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act. Allen was named Most Colorful Senator in the 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982 sessions by the Capitol Press Corps.
Allen served as principal of Bellefonte and Russell Central Elementary Schools in the Russell Independent School district from 1960 to 1994. He also served as president of the Eastern Kentucky Education Association and was also elected to the Greenup County Fiscal Court, a position he held at the time of his death. Allen was also a well known college and high school basketball official.
He was survived by his wife of 40 years, Carol Lynne Rice Allen of Bellefonte, Kentucky, who was unsuccessful in her 2006 bid for the state Senate seat once held by her husband.
“Nelson Allen” enters the record as american politician (1933–2005). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nelson, Allen and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6990358. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1933, 2005, 1973 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nelson Allen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.