William Paul Allred

William Paul Allred, loving husband and father, quiet gentleman, carpenter, mechanic, traveler, and farmer passed away surrounded by family on March 19, 2007, after a rich life of 87 years. Paul was a lifelong resident of southern Idaho. He was born in Lorenzo to William Coral and Anne Taylor Allred on October 22, 1919. Coral and Anne were divorced and Coral married Viola Guidinger. Viola brought her youngest sister, Genevie, to help with their children and Genevie met Paul. They were married December 11, 1943; father and son married sisters and committed their children, who are cousins as well as aunts and uncles, to a lifetime of interesting explanations of their family relationships. Paul and Genevie first lived in Ucon but moved to the Lorenzo area where the two close families lived on farms about a mile apart. For 28 years Paul was President of the West LaBelle Irrigation Company and was on the Board of Directors for 46 years. Paul served as a mail clerk in the Army Combat Engineers during World War II in Korea, where his oldest daughter, Paula, would later serve in the Peace Corps. He returned to Idaho to farm and raised six children, cattle, hay, grain and potatoes. As some of the children scattered to various parts of the world, Paul and Genevie visited them in Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Oregon, Georgia, California, and England, and toured portions of Western Europe. Paul was a master mechanic and fearlessly repaired ailing machinery. He built the tools he needed, for instance to repair his huge crawler tractor. He proudly sprayed newly repaired engines with his trademark color, Ford motor blue. He and Genevie bought a Class C motor home and drove it to Alaska, Michigan, and local campgrounds. They dreamed of converting a bus into a camper and were well into the conversion of an old Trailways bus when Paul suffered a second heart attack. He was on the operating table being prepared for a bypass when the damaged portion of his heart ruptured. The surgeon opened his chest and plugged the hole with his thumb to keep Paul alive until a heart/lung machine could support him, then repaired the heart. Paul recovered, thanks to the surgeon and Paul’s strong will and excellent physical condition, and lived nearly another fourteen years. In a few years he and Genevie finished the bus, which was a centerfold of the magazine, ‘Bus Conversion.’ Their stationary home was always the meeting place for family events and their bus was likewise a warm, loving, busy mobile focal point during family campouts. His parents, a sister, Barbara Bowen, and an infant son, Greg, preceded Paul in death. His survivors are his wife, Genevie Allred, children Paula (Richard Mehl) Allred of Kalamazoo, MI, Kathie (Bill) Phoenix of Idaho Falls, Pamela (Wayne) Valentine of Rexburg, Dan (Linda) Allred and Jim (Shelly) Allred of Rigby, and Melanie (Kevin) Wetzel of Idaho Falls, sisters Shirley (Jarl) Empey of Mesa, Washington, and Margaret (Leon) Peterson of Blackfoot, brothers Steve (Sally) Allred of Boise, Bill (Linda) Allred of Rigby, Dave Allred of Idaho Falls, fourteen grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. He leaves one last unfinished project, the restoration of a red 1926 Farmall Regular tractor, similar to one he first learned to drive on his father’s farm. Visitation will be held at the Eckersell Memorial Chapel, 101 W. Main, Rigby on Friday, March 23, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 24th, from 10:00 until 10:45 a.m. Funeral services will be held at the Eckersell Memorial Chapel at 11:00 a.m. with internment immediately following at the Annis Little Butte Cemetery. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to a charity of your choice.