Honoring Gabby Allen

Patrick Jones | Editor-in-Chief

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON — Gabrielle Dennyale Allen, a fellow Flyer, friend, sister, soror, and daughter unexpectedly passed on from our UD community this summer.

Gabrielle, whose friends and family called “Gabby,” died May 27, 2026. She was a recent graduate from our University’s Health Sciences program, and did so at the age of 20. 

Her academic adviser, Matthew Beerse, described her as “a genuine and kind person” that always asked “thoughtful questions.”

Kiara Brown-Turnbow is the president of the Epsilon Rho Chapter of Delta Theta Sigma Sorority, inc., and was a friend and sorority sister to Gabby.

Brown-Turnbow said Gabby was the “Ace” of the fall 2025 line of the Epsilon Rho chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. This sorority is a “service sorority”, founded on the values of “Service, Scholarship, Sisterhood and Social Action,” according to their official website. 

Becoming a Delta was Gabby’s lifelong dream, chapter president Brown-Turnbow said. In her role as an “Ace” she was in charge of her new-member intake line. “She held us accountable,” Brown-Turnbow described.

Brown-Turnbow met Gabby through this sisterhood, and referred to her as one of the “closest sisters” she had in the organization. Being the older sibling to a younger brother, Brown-Turnbow believes the sorority “was like the sisters Gabby never had.”

Gabby even captured a national title, of sorts, when she won the National Pan-Hellenic Yard Show as her chapter’s “stroll master.” Gabby choreographed the majority of their championship performance, doing so on a week’s notice. “She was that girl,” as Brown-Turnbow said, having won the Yard Show because of Gabby’s “passion and leadership.”

Brown-Turnbow described Gabby in many words, but there’s one that sums them all, “passionate.” Gabby did not just do things, she did them with “great focus” and “great energy.” 

Above all, she remembers Gabby as someone who “meant the world to everyone she came across.”

According to the University’s press release, Gabrielle Allen died “unexpectedly in her hometown of Trotwood, Ohio.” Funeral concessions were held on Monday, June 8, 2026 by Thomas Funeral Services.