Margaret Sayre Stallman, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, secretary, and homemaker, was born on May 17, 1911 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Captain George P. Stallman, a surgeon of the United States Army, and Myra Rafter Stallman. She attended West High School in Rochester, New York from 1924-1928, studied at Mount Holyoke College from 1928-1932 and graduated with a major in English literature and a minor in English. She also attended the Rochester Business Institute in 1935. She was a secretary for a physician from 1932-1935 and became a secretary for the Eastman Kodak Company Camera Works in 1935. She married Roger Allen, a production engineer at Eastman Kodak.