Alvira "Allie" Earp

In 1874, Virgil Earp met Alvira "Allie" Sullivan from Florence, Nebraska in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when she was 25. They never married but remained together the rest of his life. Allie was with Virgil in Tombstone, Arizona at the time of both the Gunfight at the OK Corral and the subsequent assassination attempt on Virgil on December 28, 1881.

On Monday, March 20, 1882, Virgil and Allie left Tombstone for California under heavy guard. They were escorted by Wyatt Earp and deputies Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, Sherman McMaster, and "Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson. Wyatt reported later that he received word in Contention that Ike Clanton, Frank Stilwell, Hank Swilling, and another cowboy were watching the passenger trains in Tucson with the aim to kill Virgil. The group drove two wagons to the New Mexico and Arizona Railroad terminal 25 miles (40 km) away in Benson and boarded the train to Tucson. Virgil was so weak he had to be carried up the steps of the train.

Wyatt and his deputies had initially planned to travel only as far as Benson, but when they learned that Stilwell and others were looking for Virgil, they remained with Virgil and Allie through to Tucson. The men were well armed with pistols, rifles and shotguns. McMaster wore two cartridge belts. Allie wore Virgil's pistol belt during the journey so it would be handy.

Virgil told the San Francisco Examiner two months later that upon getting off the train in Tucson, "Almost the first men we met on the platform there were Stilwell and his friends, armed to the teeth." "They fell back into the crowd as soon as they saw I had an escort, and the boys took me to the hotel to supper." Guarded by his brothers and the deputies, Virgil and Allie had dinner at Porter's Hotel in Tucson. Their guards helped them board the train for California, and once they were safely seated, kept a watch for the Cowboys. There was a gunfight after their departure.

Virgil and Allie lived in California until Virgil's death in 1905.

Allie supported Virgil's reconciliation with his first wife, Ellen Rysdam, who had remarried based on reports of Virgil's death in the Civil War. Virgil discovered he had a daughter (Nellie Jane Earp). At her request, Allie sent Virgil's remains to Portland, Oregon, and he was buried in the River View Cemetery there.