A Tribute to Bernard Allen (1941-2023)
We’ve learned the sad news yesterday that master luthier Bernard Allen of Naylor, Mo. passed away Sunday, 4/16/2023. Missouri Folk Arts has been honored to work with Mr. Allen many times over the years, first when he apprenticed to Doc James E. Price in 1987 to learn traditional wood joinery. Their friendship started before and continued all these years.

Master luthier Bernard Allen (Naylor) is pictured here in a 1991 photo by previous MFAP director Dana Everts-Boehm.
Mr. Allen took his joinery skills and applied them to luthiery, crafting fiddles and mandolins. In 2006, he generously contributed his wisdom to our 2007 traveling exhibition “Work is Art and Art is Work,” as one of six featured luthiers. The portrait of him below posed with his fiddle is by photojournalist Rita A. Reed, who traveled around Missouri with Folk Arts Specialist Deb Bailey to document the six luthiers.

Photo by Rita A. Reed
Mr. Allen also used his talent as a luthier and as a longtime educator to teach his own apprentices: Luke Medley (1991); Danyel Nobles (2008); Alex Clayton (2017); Robert Lewis (2018); and Chad Eads, pictured below (2022).

Apprentice Chad Eads (left) and master luthier Bernard Allen posed during a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program site visit in 2022. Photo by Deb Bailey