McCellan, J. B., 1926-2019
Biography
J.B. McCellan was born in Durant, Mississippi, in 1926 to Elra Johnson. He was raised by his grandmother. McCellan married Almeta Newman in Lexington, Mississippi, in 1946. He moved to Waterloo in 1946 to work for John Deere, where he spent his entire career, retiring in 1983. McCellan was a veteran of the United States Navy. He had four daughters, a son, 32 grandchildren, and more than 100 great- and great-great-grandchildren. He was a fan of stock car racing, a CB operator, and an avid vegetable gardener. J.B. McCellan died in 2019 at the age of 93. Biographical information found in McCellan’s obituary as published in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
McCellan, J.B., 2009-06-16
J.B. McCellan’s oral history interview focuses on his mother, Elra Wade Johnson, and her experiences working as a maid for a white family for three to four years in the 1940s. He characterizes her experiences differently than she did in an earlier interview, recalling that the family his mother worked for “treated her just like family.” [In a 2006 interview with Dr. David W. Jackson, III, which preceded the Maid Narratives project but was included in the book, Elra Johnson shared the racism she experienced from white families that she worked for. She described quitting a job after being made to use the back door and being made to eat off plates the family used to feed their dogs.]