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Paul O'Neil Allison
August 7, 1924 - May 7, 2025
Service Date May 10, 2025
The family will receive friends 1:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M. Saturday, May 10, 2025, at Alcoa Maryville Church of God. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 P.M. with Pastor Paul Dyar, Pastor Nick Kevorkian, and Royce Donnell officiating. Burial will follow at Clarks Grove Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Topside Church of God in Louisville, TN, or Alcoa-Maryville Church of God in Maryville, TN.
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Such a wonderful man and an amazing family. Mr. Allison may you rest peacefully and spend eternity with your beloved Lucille. I enjoyed my short time with you! My heart breaks for your kind family - Denise and Danette (& family I did not meet) I'm so sorry. May all your fond memories comfort you during this difficult time and the days ahead, until you meet again. I hope your dad digs dirt and rides that bobcat all over heaven!! Thank you all for the opportunity you gave me - allowing me to take care of your dad and sharing a little of your family with me. I will always treasure these moments. Mr.Paul, Denise & Danette you were one of my favorites! Thoughts and prayers
Posted by Lisa Pickett on May 9, 2025
Paul was a very talented character, unique, and one of the most important people in my life, by far. I first met him when I picked up boats from his house in Alcoa in 1960 but I'd seen him and his boats in the pits and on the water in 1958-59. He, Darris and Jay met Louis Collins and me in spring 1978 in Kaukauna for the kilo trials. They'd towed the new XR14 from Tenn., we'd carried my Hustler in Louis's Bronco from Texas. We aimed to bustx the EP record of 68.5mph. The weather was impossible so we spent three days in Marc's Budgetel talking. Our only activity aside from going to the kilo site to inspect the bad weather was to eat 'Big Boys' at Marc's Big Boy restaurant beside the motel. On the last day, before we gave up and headed back to Tenn. and Tx., Paul smiled and declared to me, 'If I die I hope I don't go north of the Ohio river'. Later that summer he and I made a memorable trip to Guntersville together to the marathon nationals in my VW van towing Darris's XR14 with their Merc 850 mounted on it (I planned to run EP with the Hustler on my 1975 14'). I can't recall the jokes but we laughed all the way to Guntersville and back. Jay's old 13' and Stinger sunk during practice but we retrieved it and he ran the nationals anyway. I think it was the next spring that Darris wanted to redesign the XR14, so he cut up a 13' and I came up for a week (I slept over the shop in their 'guest quarters', which were well-perfumed with fiberglass resin odor). Paul would always come into the shop to give advice and criticism, and would participate in breathing in Bondo dust while we all sanded. The highlight of the day was lunch down the airport road at Shoney's Big Boy. In later years, when I called Paul, I always opened with 'Let's go get a Big Boy' and he'd always repeat it. Another of his phrases was 'let's go set some records', maybe referring back to the day at Three Rivers in Oct. 1960 when I set three records, my dad set one, and Paul set one, all with Mercurys on wooden Allisons. Etc. I (I should say 'we', Paul, Darris and I) finally got a run at the EP record in Oct. 1980 in Waco-70.560mph with my stock Evinrude 75 on the XR-14. I used a 14" al offset on the transom that Darris built. The record was never broken. Goodbye Paul, they broke the mold after you were born.
Posted by Joe McCauley on May 8, 2025