Allan Leroy Lawson

Allan Leroy Lawson was born in Warren, Pennsylvania on August 10, 1919. On Wednesday, April 10, 2013, after a long, productive and happy life, Allan passed on to his reward at the age of 93 years and 8 months. Allan came from humble origins. His father, John, and mother, Leila, worked hard, but had limited means. As the Great Depression began, Allan at age 12 began work as a hired man for the dairy farmers in Lander, Pennsylvania. He lived on the farms, did chores in the morning and evening, attended school, and worked on weekends and in the summers. Allan was the 1938 valedictorian of his Lander High School graduating class composed of 14 students. In 1939, Allan welded pipes and tanks and did office work at the Pennsylvania Furnace and Iron Company in Warren. He joined the 28th National Guard Division leading a 60mm mortar section as a sergeant. In April 1942, selected for Officer Candidate School, Allan was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He served as a Stevedore Officer loading and unloading ships in North Africa, and at the landings of Salerno and Anzio, Italy. In 1945 until the war ended, he was a Platoon Leader and later Executive Officer serving with Company C, 371st Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division (Buffalo Soldiers) fighting the Germans in the Po and Serchio valleys in northern Italy. In 1943, Allan met Carolina Anna Beatrice Donadio, a native of Naples, Italy, and post graduate student studying toward a doctorate in language and literature (Latin, English, French and Italian) from the University of Naples. Completing her degree, they married in Naples on September 15, 1945. Assignments with Army's Quartermaster Corps in Sicily; Marburg and Berlin, Germany; and Washington, DC followed. In 1947, Allan and Carolina moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico where their son, John, was born. Assigned to Graves Registration, part of Allan's work was retrieving the remains of American airmen downed during the war in the Brazilian jungles. Allan trained in Chicago and served as a contracting officer at the Quartermaster Military Market Center, Oakland, California. After a two year unaccompanied tour to Korea, Allan was assigned to Japan where Carolina and John joined him. In 1958, assigned to Headquarters, New Orleans Region Military Subsistence Supply Agency, which supplied food to 25 military installations in the South, Allan worked contracting dairy, poultry, meat and waterfoods. In April 1963, he retired in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and entered Federal Civil Service working with small business contracting ammunition. Allan loved to read, especially history, and in their mid-60s Allan and Carolina built a house with a vast library just north of Charleston, South Carolina in which they lived to the end of their 80s. Having grown up impoverished, Allan's primary focus was to have sufficient means. In his last years, he repeatedly asked from where the money came for the assisted living facility in which he lived. He was reassured by his son that, as usual, he was paying his own way by the dint of his many years of service. Even before he became one, Allan Leroy Lawson was always the good soldier; he was honorable, loyal, steadfast, and fair. He was the finest husband, father and grandfather, and he was always genuinely amiable and pleasant. He served his family and country splendidly. He was preceded in death by Carolina, his loving wife of 66 years. He is greatly missed by his son, John, his daughter-in-law, Anna, and his three granddaughters - Nalan, Yasemin and Nilay Lawson. He was a great gentleman. He led a remarkable life.