Word: melba
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...simple farmer's daughter, one of ten children, and never went to college. But Melba Till Allen had big ambitions. She taught herself accounting and, after 13 years as a bookkeeper, was elected state auditor of Alabama in 1966. Voters were charmed by her beehive hairdo, ultrafeminine ways and strong Baptist principles. In office, she went so ferociously after state employees who padded their expense accounts and otherwise wasted public funds that she became known as "Melba Watching-the-Till Allen." She was enthusiastically re-elected in 1970 and four years later easily won election as state treasurer...
...Melba Allen also wanted to become rich, and according to testimony last week in a Montgomery courtroom, this ambition led to her undoing. While state auditor, she began dabbling in her own business on the side, taking out 26 bank loans, mostly to speculate in land sales and help her husband Marvin expand his trucking business. Once installed as Alabama's $23,000-a-year treasurer, she quickly turned her new powers to personal use. Chief among them was authority over the cash in the state treasury, sometimes amounting to $550 million, which by law must be deposited...
Soon bankers learned that they could improve their chances of getting the state as a customer if they made personal loans to Melba Allen...
...Melba Allen's investments went sour. As cracks appeared in her financial empire, she obtained more loans to cover overdue debts. "Out of desperation she was trying to keep her corporate house of horrors from falling," said District Attorney Jimmy Evans. Toward the end, her debts rose to $1.7 million. Finally, after an anonymous letter to the state ethics commission last September, the Allen get-rich scheme collapsed. A grand jury conducted a three-month investigation, subpoenaing 270 bankers, and indicted her on charges of misusing her office for personal gain...
Throughout the testimony, Melba Allen, immaculately coiffed in spit curls and a Grecian wiglet, sat impassively, toying with a ballpoint pen and whispering occasionally to her four lawyers. Only once did she break down, during a parade of 24 character witnesses, including old friends, her preacher and Governor George Wallace, who attested to her "good" reputation. Nonetheless, the jury needed only 45 minutes to find her guilty as charged. When sentenced next week, she faces up to 20 years in prison and $20,000 in fines...