Michael T. Allen of Saugus died peacefully at home on Sunday morning, October 25, 2026, holding his wife Brenda’s hand. He was 73.
He lived his whole life in Saugus and graduated from Saugus High School in 1971. He was the captain of the Ellie A II, a bright green lobster boat built in Nova Scotia that fished the waters from the Saugus River out to the Boston Harbor Islands for decades and was known to most of the people who work on that stretch of water. His family says lobstering was his birthright and that he did it at the highest level for most of his adult life.
From 2004 to 2019 he also worked the grounds at the Irving Oil terminal in Revere, 15 years he valued for the company and his colleagues. The job let him retire at 66, which for him meant going back to lobstering a couple of days a week.
Off the water he was a musician. He played a full piano-button accordion, a soulful harmonica, and “Chopsticks” on the piano with his granddaughters, and he led family sing-alongs of “House of the Rising Sun” with his sister Kathy on vocals and “All of Me” with his sister Chrissy. He was big and strong, followed all four Boston teams, preferred steel-toed boots to sneakers and did not mind the occasional scrap or a few cold beers, and he was, his family says, a teddy bear to his four granddaughters, generous, perceptive and impossible to fool. Depending on who was talking, he was Tuna, Uncle Boom-Boom, Captain Mike, Papa or Dad.
He leaves his wife of nearly 46 years, Brenda Allen of Saugus; his daughter and son-in-law, Katie and John Previte of East Boston; his son and daughter-in-law, Josh and Colleen Allen of Lynnfield; his granddaughters, Juliana and Jenna Previte and Layla and Kayleigh Allen; his sister, Kathy Schena; his nephews, Mike, Tony and Dan Schena and Christopher and Nick Smith; and his niece, Shannon Smith. His parents, Ellie and Ivan; his sister, Chrissy Smith; and his longtime travel companion, Michael Schena, died before him.
Visiting hours and a funeral were held at the Bisbee-Porcella Funeral Home, 549 Lincoln Avenue, Saugus, with a funeral Mass at St. Margaret’s Church, 431 Lincoln Avenue, and interment at Puritan Lawn Memorial Park in Peabody. Donations in his memory may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Compiled from information published by Bisbee-Porcella Funeral Home. Photograph courtesy of the family via Bisbee-Porcella Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
