Laughter on My Path: An Educator's Funny and Compelling Encounters with People, Problems, and Pets

Laughter on My Path is the memoir of a medical school professor's fun-loving, pet-collecting, musical daughter. She wanted a more normal life and career apart from studying human brains on the kitchen table, being introduced to cadavers, and facing puberty with Gray's Anatomy. Still terribly naïve, she married the wrong man, who later became her brother-in-law and their boys' "Uncle Dad." As Ann Hamilton in this first marriage, she began teaching Spanish. When she became Joplin High School's dean of girls, she realized she must be both administrator and counselor to solve students' problems. Later, she married Joplin's entertaining school superintendent, Dr. Jack Allman. Soon they served as educators in Buenos Aires, where she made colorful mistakes using Mexican Spanish. Then they re-entered the States to stir up three more school systems.

Dr. Allman taught in three Missouri high schools. She was dean of girls at Joplin High School/Parkwood, Columbia College's assistant to the dean of students, and assistant principal at Neosho High School. She was director of guidance at the American School in Buenos Aires and counselor at MSSC (now MSSU). "Ann Allman has given us a host of hilarious vignettes of her life. You'll marvel at how she solves problems without conflict and may vow to steal some of her solutions" -Jo Pearcy, author of Secrets and Secrets Sealed: A Sequel to "Secrets" "Rarely does a memoir have the humor and verve of this one. She is a true educator and has lived a remarkable life. We are privileged to share it" -Robin D. Montz, 1987 Missouri State Teacher of the Year "Ann relates some of her and others' most amusing and embarrassing moments and tells how she handled difficult situations and helped find remedies" -Charles Nodler, archivist, MSSU George Spiva Library and author of Bracing the Cornerpost