Oscar Kelly Allen Sr. (August 8, 1882 – January 28, 1936), also known as O. K. Allen, was the 42nd Governor of Louisiana from 1932 to 1936. Allen succeeded Alvin Olin King, who served briefly in the state's highest office after Huey Long left the governorship to take a seat in the United States Senate. Early life and education Allen was born in 1882 in a log cabin in Winn Parish to Asa Levi Allen and the former Sophronia Perkins. He attended Winn Parish schools, the Springfield Normal School and Business College in Springfield, Missouri, and Trinity University. Career Allen taught school in Winn Parish in 1898 and later in Mineral Springs, Texas, and Pleasant Hill in Sabine Parish. In 1908, he was an assistant registrar at Trinity. Thereafter, he worked at times in farming, railroads, the mercantile business, and in oil drilling. Allen took an early, active interest in politics and civic affairs. After joining the Democratic Party, he was elected tax assessor in Winn Parish and served from 1916 to 1920. He was the clerk of the Winn Parish Police Jury (equivalent of a county commission in other states) from 1924-1927. He was elected to the Louisiana state Senate in 1928 in the wake of Huey Long's landslide victory in the gubernatorial election. He defeated the anti-Long incumbent, former Republican Henry E. Hardtner of La Salle Parish. Allen served as Long's floor leader in the Senate; he was also appointed by the governor as chairman of the Louisiana Highway Commission, serving from 1928 until 1930. His appointment was legally challenged. In the litigation that reached the Louisiana Supreme Court, it ruled that holding both legislative and executive positions simultaneously was unconstitutional. Allen resigned as chairman. Allen was elected governor in the shadow of Huey Long, who had resigned after being elected as US Senator from Louisiana and relocated to Washington, D.C.. Allen was considered a political stooge for former governor Long. His brother Earl Long once joked that a leaf blew into Allen's office one day and that he signed it, thinking it was legislation from Long. Elected with Allen was Huey Long's choice for lieutenant governor, John B. Fournet of Jefferson Davis Parish. Fournet defeated Long's younger brother, Earl Kemp Long, who had the support of most Long family members despite Huey's support for Fournet. Allen signed into law Louisiana's popular homestead exemption, legislation pushed to passage