Sometimes God gives a person a multitude of talents; Allin Lawrence was one of those individuals. He was as comfortable on a caterpillar, backhoe or bucket truck, as he was in a 502 Air Tractor. It is hard to write about your own brother, because there is so much you would like to say, but there just isn’t enough space to put it all down. Here is just a small part of Allin’s life.
Allin Lawrence was born September 20, 1944 in Carnegie, Oklahoma to Varney Thomas and Doreta Mae Lawrence. Although as a young child he lived in California and New Mexico, he lived most of his life in the Carnegie and Eakly, Oklahoma area. He graduated from Carnegie High School in 1962.
Allin grew up working on farms in the local area with the rest of the family, chopping weeds out of cotton and peanuts during the summer, and pulling cotton in the fall of the year, before and after school, and on weekends. He decided at a very young age that this was not the type of work he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
During his lifetime, Allin learned many skills in a number of professions. As a young man he moved to Wichita Falls, Texas and worked for Tasty Bread Bakery. He moved back to Carnegie where he went to work at Hobart for Paul Finefrock at the Roosevelt Rock Quarry, operating heavy equipment.
It was during this time that he met a young lady from Eakly, Oklahoma by the name of Donna Taylor. On January 15, 1965, Allin Lawrence and Donna Taylor were married in Wellington, Texas. What a blessing she has been to Allin and the Lawrence family.
In 1965, at the age of 21, he joined Local Union #627 and became a crane operator for Allied Steel of Oklahoma City, which led to him becoming an Iron Worker for C. V. Stamper Construction. Allin helped to build many of the microwave towers you see scattered across the United States today. When their first daughter became school age, Allin and Donna moved back to the Eakly area and he went to work for Caddo Electric Coop at Binger, in the office, then later as a lineman.
Music was always a very important part of Allin’s life. Allin always had a secret desire to pursue that dream. He had his own country and western band, called “Allin and the Drovers.” On the weekends he and his band would play at nightclubs around the state of Oklahoma. Allin was a very gifted musician and could play several different instruments. But as important as music was to Allin, providing for his family was more important to him.
Allin learned to fly in the early 1970s and got his commercial pilot license. In 1973 he and Donna formed A & L Aerial Spraying, Inc. at Eakly, Oklahoma, where they served a large area of the state, spraying many different types of crops for area farmers.
Allin and Donna traveled with their family and crew working for the United States Government on Federal contracts in Montana, Wyoming, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico and Texas, spraying rangeland, forest and cotton for grasshoppers, gypsy moths and boll weevils.
In addition to their aerial spraying business, Allin and Donna operated Lawrence Brothers Powerline Construction, Rig Power Oil Field Transformer Leasing, Lawrence Trucking and Lawrence Farms, Allin and his son A. J. also raised peanuts and wheat in the Eakly area. Allin and Donna built two farm service facilities in the Eakly and Carnegie communities and leased them to Con Agra Foods to provide chemicals and fertilizer to the area farmers.
Allin and Donna traveled to Prague, Czech Republic in 1994 and became a dealer for the Walter M601 turbo prop jet engine built by the Motorlet Factory. Allin, Donna and their family showed the engine around the country at ag conventions in several states. Allin introduced the engine to the United States and the engine is being installed today on many different types of aircraft across America.
In 1998 Allin and three of his pilots were certified by the BIA for aerial firefighting and fought fires in eastern Oklahoma near Antlers. In 2000 Allin was certified by the State of Oklahoma Forestry Service and awarded a state contract for fire protection for western Oklahoma. Allin was instrumental in saving Caddo Electric from destruction after the Binger hills caught on fire.
He was a member of numerous organizations; The Oklahoma Agriculture Aviation Association, Texas Agriculture Aviation Association and National Agriculture Aviation Association. Allin also served on the board of directors at Caddo Electric at Binger from 1984 until his death.
After Allin got his commercial pilot’s license, he wanted to be an ag-pilot, so I checked him out in a 235 Pawnee and 600 Thrush. He was a natural. Even from the very first, he was a very gifted ag-pilot. In the following years he flew most all of the different types of ag-planes.
Yet, even with all these accomplishments in his life, of all the things on this earth, he was most proud his wife and three children, and his grandchildren. And of all the decisions that he had made during his life, he was most proud of his decision to put his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He knew that it was the most important decision he would ever make. Allin became a Christian on Father’s Day, June 14, 2001. He was baptized at the Alfalfa Baptist Church where he attended until he went to be with the Lord.
Varney Allin Lawrence, 58 of Eakly, Oklahoma, left this life on Thursday, July 31, 2003 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Allin did not die, he just moved out of his old body to a new body, a perfect and immortal body that will last for all eternity in the presence of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.