Whipple Allison, born in 1903 in Young County, Texas to parents George Washington Whipple and Ila Lovie Jones, spent his early years in Young County. By 1920, at the age of 16, Whipple was living at home in Electra, Wichita County, Texas, and working as a farmer. Although there are no military service records available for Whipple Allison, later newspaper articles suggest he served in the U.S. Navy.
In 1926, Whipple Allison made his way to Brooklyn, New York, where he married Theresa Martin on July 22, 1926. Their first child, John Cornelius Allison, was born on December 23, 1927. Trouble surfaced for the Allison family by March 1928 when a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article reported, "Return of Whipple Allison of Electra, to New York, to answer charges of wife and child abandonment."
In December 1928, their daughter, Rosemary Allison, was born. New York authorities traveled to Texas to extradite Whipple back to New York. In May 1929, Theresa Martin Allison appealed to the Good Will court in Brooklyn, New York, citing her struggles to support two young children on $3 a week. She claimed that her husband had obtained a Texas divorce without her knowledge, asserting that Whipple Allison had been in the United States Navy at the time of their marriage. In March 1928, Whipple Allison disappeared, and Theresa never remarried, raising their two children on her own.
Upon returning to the South in July 1929, Whipple Allison married Winnie Mae Hyden in Frederick, Oklahoma. Legal troubles continued to shadow Allison as he was arrested in November 1929 for assaulting a 15-year-old boy. He claimed provocation as the reason for his actions and was fined $5 and court costs.
By April 1930, Whipple Allison had embarked on a new family with Ruby Blankenship. The 1930 U.S. Census listed them as husband and wife in Young County, Texas, and their son, Eddie Dale Allison, was born on August 17, 1931.
In 1934, Allison had a turbulent year. He remarried Winnie Mae Hyden in February but remained in the news due to an incident in March where he was arrested for setting fire to Ruby Blankenship's father's garage and chicken house in Electra, Texas. He was indicted for arson in April 1934 and subsequently sentenced to two years in the Texas penitentiary. In December 1934, he received a conditional pardon from Texas Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson.
The 1940 U.S. Census records Whipple Allison as an inmate in the Hopkins County, Texas jail. After 1940, little is known about his personal life. There is a record of his 1944 marriage to Anna Coleman in Dallas, Texas, and a divorce from Winnie Mae Allison in 1951.
Whipple Allison reappeared in newspaper archives in Alexandria, Louisiana in March 1960. He was found sleeping between railroad tracks to keep warm and was sentenced to 30 days in the Rapides Parish County Jail.
Whipple Allison passed away in 1970. His obituary listed his surviving son, Eddie Allison, and several brothers and sisters. However, it did not mention the two children from New York. Whipple Allison was laid to rest in Oakland Cemetery in Dallas, Texas.
