Brenda Booke Allen passed away on March 25, surrounded by her two daughters and younger brother, in Jackson, Wyoming that served as her homeland playground for more than 40 years. Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania on May 22, 1941, she spent her childhood in Pennsylvania and Florida before attending the University of Kentucky, where she met with her lifelong love, Charles Allen, while pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
In 1974, she and her young family ventured west from Augusta, Georgia to settle in Lander, Wyoming. An engaged citizen, Brenda served her community as a member of the Lander Medical Auxiliary, a Girl Scout Troop Leader, a Lander School Board and Library Board member and a relentless parent chaperone for community and school events.
In 1981, she opened Lander’s first independent bookstore, The Booke Shoppe, which became a nexus of literary and community engagement. She often “held court” at the Booke Shoppe, discussing authors and books while providing a listening ear or warm hand to an ever increasing circle of friends and tourists alike.
In middle age, she became an avid tennis player, embracing tennis camps, clinics and tournaments with abandon. In 2009, she and her Teton Pines tennis team represented Wyoming in the USTA National Tennis Championship, a venture for which she was exceptionally proud. Brenda loved nothing more than her life as a wife, mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, and friend figure to so many. She was the center of her family’s life…admired and appreciated for her unconditional love and support. Her friends and family describe her as a lovely friend, a caring person, an amazing woman, a warm-hearted soul, a beautiful lady, a tough, smart woman, a force in the world, active, engaged, social, kind, warm, thoughtful. To her daughters she was their ‘Queen’.
The world has lost a great source of light and connectivity. Brenda is survived by her daughters; Amy Allen Carrizosa and Ashley Allen Jones, her brother; Bradley Booke, five grandchildren; Kayla Juvan Kimball, Jennifer Juvan Higgins, Siena Waldman, Alexa Waldman, Lucas Waldman, three great grandchildren; Griffin, Asher & Kynsley Kimball. She joins her husband of 58 years in the great beyond, where they are certain to be playing tennis and surrounded by family and friends. A celebration of life will be held this summer in Lander, Wyoming.