Richard Eve Allen

Richard Eve Allen died peacefully at his home on Thursday, July 24, 2025.

Mr. Allen was born in Augusta in 1941, the only child of Helen Gibson Allen and Richard Elliott Allen, Jr. He was welcomed into a family of Allens, Eves, and Wadleys, that included some of the founding physicians and early faculty of the Medical College of Georgia. Mr. Allen’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all served as mayors of Augusta.

He attended kindergarten at the newly opened Episcopal Day School, and then attended William Robinson Elementary School.

With the untimely death of his father in 1950, he and his mother moved to Atlanta. Mr. Allen’s mother had begun working for the fledgling Delta Air Lines at Augusta’s Daniel Field in 1942, and she continued her work with Delta in Atlanta. When she eventually remarried, Mr. Allen gained a kind and loving stepfather in Anderson Champion of Atlanta.

Mr. Allen graduated from Northside High School in 1959, where he lettered in basketball and tennis. In 1963 he graduated from Vanderbilt University, where he majored in philosophy, sang in the fraternity chorus, played intramural sports, and formed lifelong friendships in Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

Standing six-foot-five-inches tall, and athletic, he spent his college summers in Atlanta unloading boxcars for the A&P Grocery warehouse, and mourning with strangers as a professional pallbearer for H. M. Patterson’s Spring Hill Funeral Home.

In 1966 Mr. Allen received his Doctor of Law degree from Emory University, where he was vice president of Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. He then returned home to Augusta to begin practicing law at the venerable firm Cumming, Nixon, Eve, Waller and Capers.

His years of service in the U.S. Army Reserve began while in law school. He received basic training at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, and then advanced training at the U.S. Army Intelligence School at Ft. Holabird, Maryland, a training ground for international spies. His unit having never been called for active duty, he was given an honorable discharge.

At the urging of friends and in a time of turmoil in the district attorney’s office, he ran as a write-in candidate in the 1972 DA race and won. During two four-year terms in that position Gov. Jimmy Carter appointed Mr. Allen to the Criminal Justice Standards and Goals Commission, and Gov. George Busbee appointed him to the Georgia State Crime Commission. As district attorney, Mr. Allen especially enjoyed being mentor to numerous younger lawyers.

In 1980 he returned to private practice with an emphasis on trial law, which soon became primarily criminal defense. In addition to protecting his clients’ interests to the extent provided by law, Mr. Allen relished the intensely human drama of the courtroom, and the teamwork between himself, defendants, witnesses, investigators - especially Jim Johnson and Gene Staulcup - and fellow attorneys.

Mr. Allen was a member of the State Bar of Georgia, Augusta Bar Association, Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and served as president of the Augusta Area Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

Mr. Allen married Kay Dienst Heinsma in 1969, and became adoring stepfather to young Kathryn and John Heinsma. Then he was blessed with the births of Eve and Elliott Allen. The marriage ended in amicable divorce. He later married Jeanie Cross Smith and became devoted stepfather to Katherine and Randy Smith.

Mr. Allen was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, the Heritage Club, Kiwanis Club, Gridiron, Augusta Symphony League, and Augusta Country Club.

He served on the boards of the Augusta Opera (where he enjoyed painting sets), the Kiwanis Club and Episcopal Day School. He coached two YMCA youth soccer teams, the Chiefs and the Flames. An enthusiastic tennis player and advocate for youth tennis, he served on the city’s committee that planned, designed, and built the public Newman Tennis Center.

Mr. Allen practiced law for fifty years, and after retirement he delighted in spending time with his children and their children. Though confined to a wheelchair, he made many day trips to Atlanta to attend Falcons games with grandchildren. He cheered for the Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Commodores on TV, and was infinitely grateful that new technology allowed him to cheer his grandchildren’s football, lacrosse, volleyball, etc., games streamed on the TV screen. He continued his love of reading American and European History. He enjoyed attending symphony and chamber concerts and listening to his extensive collection of recordings. His interest in and passion for classical music had begun when he was a little boy listening to symphony, and sometimes opera, broadcasts on the radio and on 78 RPM records with his dad, whom he admired and adored and lost much too soon.

He enjoyed laughs and lively debates and discussions with friends and family, and for several years he had the pleasure each month of hosting a gentlemen’s Book Club in his home, or weather permitting, under a rose arbor in his backyard.

Mr. Allen is survived by Jeanie, his wife of 41 years, and his children and grandchildren: Kathryn Kirley and her husband Dan, of Honolulu, Hawaii; John Heinsma and his wife Jen, and daughter Senna of Nice, France; Eve Cronje and her husband Adrian, and children Gibson and Philip of Atlanta; Elliott Allen and his wife Sallie, and daughters Wren and Lucie, of Charleston, SC; Katherine Smith of Manhattan, NY, and Augusta; and Randy Smith, Jr. and his wife Monica, and children Randolph, Daniel, Maxine, and Louis, of Atlanta. His presence is greatly missed by Joe, his faithful and enthusiastic canine companion.

Mr. Allen’s family acknowledges and thanks Leon Lewis, Kevin D’Antignac, and Richardeen Dunbar for the kindness, patience, humor, companionship, and extraordinary care they gave both Richard and Jeanie throughout his long illness. Also, Heartland Hospice staff and nurses and MYD Home Health Services caregivers provided the Allens invaluable support and professionalism, for which the family is forever grateful.

The funeral service will be Thursday, July 31, at 4:00 PM, at The Church of the Good Shepherd, Dr. Talmadge A “Joe” Bowden officiating. Mr. Allen’s family looks forward to greeting friends following the service at a reception in the church parish hall. Private interment will be in the family plot at Summerville Cemetery.

A donation in Mr. Allen’s memory would benefit those, like him, who could no longer attend church services in person: Attn. Streaming Project Church of the Good Shepherd, 2230 Walton Way, Augusta, Ga. 30904.

Thomas Poteet & Son Funeral Directors, 214 Davis Rd., Augusta, GA. 30907 (706)364-8484. Please sign the guest book at www.thomaspoteet.com.