Alys M. "Toddy" McAllister

Alys M. "Toddy" McAllister, 83, passed away on February 12, 2026, in Harlingen, Texas.

Born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio on April 22, 1942, to Lt. James Tod and Beatrice (Law) Watson. Lt. Watson, a navigator on B-17’s was killed in action off the coast of Sicily on July 9, 1943, during WWII. Mrs. Watson married Ray W. Alford from Ft. Thomas, Kentucky in 1945. He remained in the Air Force as a career officer affording Toddy the privilege of traveling through Europe while living in France, Germany and Portugal as well as ten different states in the U.S.

Toddy was a musician. She graduated from Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was further educated at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, Denison University in Granville, Ohio and Pan American University in Edinburg, Texas where she majored in music.

After marrying John Garrison McAllister of Fayetteville, Arkansas, she moved to Brownsville, Texas in 1970. While in Brownsville, she taught at Villa Maria High School and Texas Southmost College. She was organist and choir director at the Church of Advent, Episcopal and taught piano at South Texas Piano and Music Company. She was past Chairman of the National Guild of Piano Teachers, a member of the Texas Federation of Music Clubs and was on the Board of Directors of the Brownsville Historical Association.

In 1989, she moved to Harlingen, Texas where she was organist and choir director at Grace Lutheran Church as well as teaching music in the San Benito CISD. She belonged to the Texas Choral Directors Association, The American Choral Directors Association, and sang in the “incredible” South Texas Chorale of Harlingen.

In 2017 she had her membership at the Church of the Advent, Episcopal in Brownsville transferred to St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Harlingen.

Surviving Ms. McAllister are her sister, Antoinette Rae Thorn and her brother, Thomas Law (Laurie) Alford, two nephews, Michael Raymond and David Ryan as well as her cousins Kathleen Law (Stephen) Rhinesmith, Robert Ingram (Kati) Law and Margaret Ann Law (Richard) Stanley. Toddy was the granddaughter of Carl C. and Alys Shipman Law of Utica, Ohio.

There will be no local services. Interment will be at South Lawn Cemetery in Utica, Ohio under the direction of Law-Baker Funeral Home, 34 N. Main Street in Utica, Ohio.