The following year the family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where her father established a tractor dealership and where she grew up and attended public school.

In a newspaper article published shortly thereafter, she wrote that the legislative session had resulted in the couple's having "the most public, political honeymoon in history".

[4] In 1967, the same year that her husband finished his term as lieutenant governor, Maryon Allen discovered that she had tuberculosis and underwent several months of treatment.

One week later, on June 8, 1978, Alabama Governor George Wallace appointed Maryon Allen to succeed her husband in the Senate.

In October 1978, she voted for a proposal to allow states that had ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to rescind their ratification.

Governor Wallace had been expected to seek the Senate seat, but he decided not to run, making Allen the favorite to win.

Allen said that Quinn had distorted her statements, but the comments alienated many Alabamians, and some questioned her judgment in sitting for an interview with the Post, which conservatives considered to be a liberal publication.

She won a plurality in the September 5, 1978, Democratic primary election, receiving 44 percent of the vote, but failed to win the outright majority that was needed to avoid a runoff.