Golden Days: Reminiscences of Alumnae, Mississippi State College for Women

Joan Crawford Meadows McLemore, Class of 1951

DECEMBER 27, 2OO6 INTERVIEWED BY AMBER KING TRANSCRIBED BY AMBER KING AND RACHELFORESTER /OAN CRAWFORD MEADOWS, THE MIDDLE CHILD OFJames Leon v Meadows and Dell Crawford Meadows, was born in Texas on August 24, 1929. The family subsequently moved to Oklahoma and then to Mississippi in 1939. After graduating from Natchez High School in June 1947, Meadows came to MSCW, where she studied for two years. During her freshman year, she was elected house chairman of Hastings and served in the Student Government Association. Also during her first year, she played the clarinet in the orchestra. As a sophomore, she wrote for MSCWs student newspaper, the Spectator. She left MSCW after the spring 1949 semester and married Kenneth McLemore (1926-97), a farmer, a year later. After working in a bank for nearly twenty years, she changed careers, completing a bachelors degree at the University of Southern Mississippi. She served as a public librarian in Franklin County for fifteen years and then as director of the library at Copiah-Lincoln Community College for thirteen years. In 1983, she completed a masters degree in 171 Class of 1951 Joan Crawford Meadows McLemore j library science from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has served on the executive board of the Mississippi Library Association and the Natchez Historical Society and is a member of avariety of heritage organizations. She retired from Co-Lin in 2003 but is now a popular professionalstoryteller, regularly presenting programs on Mississippi history and related topics. She also frequently discusses and reviewsbooks for programs such as the Institute for Learning in Retirement. She lives in Natchez. JM: We lived in Texas and eventually in Oklahoma. My dad was born in Oklahoma when it was the Indian Territory. His dad worked for the railroad company. We lived there for three years and then finally got to Natchez. My mother was so happy because she was a Mississippian, and she was back home where they had trees and grass. We came to Natchez in 1939. Theywere building Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company here, and that was the company my daddy went to workfor. I had planned to go to Northeast Junior College, it was then, in Monroe, Louisiana—it s now the University of Louisiana at Monroe. I wanted to study journalism, but my daddy would not have that. So I said, "I will go to the W."And my folks were not happy about me going to the W, but if I couldn't study what I wanted to, I would go where I wanted to. I wasenchanted with the thought of going to a girls' school. AK: What do you remember about your first year? JM: During the summer of 1947, styles changed. That was the advent of the new look. My mother had been sewing for months making clothes for me. Oh, she was a professional seamstress, truly. I never had a coat that came from the store until I went to college. My mother made beautiful clothes for me. But that summer, all of a sudden, things that had been knee length had to be ankle length. She put yokes on skirts, and all the dresses had drapes and were down to the ankle. Material with a satin weave or a satin figure in it was real important. And crepes with drapes were very important. And of course hats, platform shoes, high heels—very high-heel shoes, sling-back pumps, gloves, all those were 172 Class of 1951 important things to go to the W. I had two trunks that I had sent to the W by railway express. One was a wardrobe trunk, and one was a steamer trunk. These trunks had belonged to my mother when shewas in college, and they're still around. Some member of the family still owns those trunks. It was quite exciting to be going off to college. I remember leaving home on the twenty-second or twenty-third of September—maybe the twenty-fourth. Therecl been a terrible storm down on the coast. Much of the coast had been blown away.1 Oh, it was awful. And Natchez is so far from Columbus, we had to go by bus. Nobody had a car back then. The war hadn't been over for very long; nobody could afford a car. I rode the bus to Jackson and changed buses in Jackson and got to Columbus. When I...