The parade of excellent offspring from WILSON'S ALLEN seems inexhaustible. Such champions as MELODY MAID, CITY GIRL, WILSON'S ACE, STAR PARADER and a host of others followed in the paths of PRIDE OF MEMPHIS, THE G-MAN, STROLLING JIM and HAYNES PEACOCK. Two time World Grand Champion, and the greatest Walking Horse breeding sire of all time, MIDNIGHT SUN, was sired by WILSON'S ALLEN.   Both MELODY MAID and CITY GIRL won the World Grand Championship, but no doubt the greatest show mare ever sired by WILSON'S ALLEN was MERRY WILSON. 

MERRY WILSON was foaled in May of 1939. Sired by WILSON'S ALLEN, she was from a mare named LADY CHANCE by LAST CHANCE.  The dam of LADY CHANCE should prove especially interesting to Walking Horse breeders.  LADY CHANCE was from the previously mentioned mare, NELL DON, which was in turn out of NELL DEMENT, the same mare that foaled MERRY LEGS.  The interesting aspect of the situation is that the solid white NELL DON was sired by MERRY BOY who was actually NELL DEMENT'S grandson. 

The Hawkins kept the young mare at their place and broke her as a two year-old but never entered her in competition. Archie Macon, son of the famous "Uncle Dave" of Grand Ole Opry fame, worked on the mare's feet to get her ready for serious training.   As a three year-old MERRY was shown by Hawkins at the Murfreesboro, Tennessee, show.   She placed fourth behind an array of fine fillies that, by contrast, pointed up some of MERRY' S basic weaknesses.   The mare was then sent to Billy Grubbs at Haynes Haven Farm, but contracted pneumonia and was returned home.   When well again MERRY was sent to Floyd Carothers at Wartrace for further training.   Carothers showed MERRY at Franklin, Tennessee, but again, she was not impressive. The next outing proved to be a different story.   Against an outstanding class of three-year-old mares at the PTA show in Shelbyville, Tennessee, she topped the field, and caught the eye of all who saw her.   Just at this time Carothers left Wartrace to train at the Rambo Stables in Fayetteville, Tennessee, and the mare came home to Woodbury.

After Steve Hill had worked MERRY for a few weeks he took her to Fayetteville, Tennessee, where he placed second in the mare class to CITY GIRL.  It was a very unpopular decision as far as the spectators were concerned, and although MERRY was denied the blue she became the new idol of the breed.  The morning following the Fayetteville show Floyd Carothers phoned Hawkins and bought MERRY WILSON for Frank Rambo for $3500.  She was sold in a short time to Dr. and Mrs. J. W. Werner of Jonesboro, Arkansas. Carothers was unable to train MERRY because of his failing health, and the mare was sent to J. B. Smith then riding Walking Horses at the Pointer Stables in Como, Mississippi.  Smith showed the mare throughout the season of 1944, and under his management she won throughout the show circuit.

 In 1945 MERRY won the Championships at Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; and Columbia, Tennessee. She also won, for the second year in a row, the Mare Class at the Celebration.  In the Championship Stake of that year she placed behind MIDNIGHT SUN and COTTON PICKIN MAC.

In 1946, under the management of Steve Hill, MERRY won Stakes at Sparta, Columbia, and Woodbury, all in Tennessee. Again she took the Mare Class at the Celebration, and placed behind MIDNIGHT SUN and MERRY GO BOY in the Grand Championship Stake. She defeated BLACK ANGEL in the $1000 Mare Class in Chicago later that fall but due to an oversight was not entered in the Big Stake.

MERRY WILSON continued her winning way for the Werners, and it is estimated she won over eighty blue ribbons while their property. Just before the Celebration of 1947, the mare was sold to Bob Cunningham of Zelienople, Pennsylvania, for $25,000. She continued to dominate all mare classes, and won that class at the Celebration for the fourth consecutive time. In the Grand Championship Stake at the 1947 Celebration she tied second behind MERRY GO BOY, beating out MIDNIGHT SUN who placed third.

The year of 1948 would be MERRY' S last shot at the Grand Championship. In preliminary classes she won the mare title for the fifth time, a record unequalled by any other mare in Celebration history. When she entered the ring in the stake class it was obvious she was not right, and the light-stepping MERRY GO BOY left her in his dust. She was again rewarded the Reserve Championship title.

As has been noted, MERRY WILSON was a product of A. M. Dement's program in experimental breeding, and offers an excellent example of the line-breeding that has gone into the modern Walking Horse.

MERRY WILSON is remembered by those who saw her as having the best flat walk in the history of the breed. She did not have speed in the running walk, but her movements were precise and perfectly coordinated. Ed Ezell of Chapel Hill, Tennessee, continued to show the mare after 1949, and she continued to exhibit the characteristics that had made her famous.  She would prove to be the last contender for the Grand Championship sired by the great WILSON'S ALLEN.