My Journey
McClendon, Mary (2010-02-24)

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Hi there, I'm Mary McClendon. I'm from Columbus, Ohio. I've lived here since I was little child, six years old. I was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, a little small town on the river, very lovable town, just common, boat people coming from the country and coming up from the north to get a better life. I was adopted at the age of six years old and we moved here to Columbus, Ohio. And all my schooling and all my church affiliations have been here in the city. I am Baptist. I sing at the moment, I'm not currently in a church choir, but I got the love of choral music. 

My school experience in elementary school was just wonderful. When I think back on it, it was fun everyday, I guess I should say.  It was a very small school and segregated at the time. And our teachers were there for us, they loved teaching and just knew us, and that was probably, well I know it was a safe haven for a lot of kids. And nobody missed school, it was like you went to school, that was driven from your parents at home and the community, and it was a thing that you did and you were taught so many, many things that I don't think elementary kids get today because the classes are so large and what have you. 

My first singing experience came in elementary school, and I had a teacher, his name was James Wadsworth Worthington and he delighted in writing his name across the chalkboard because it took up the entire board. And that was one of the things that was so amazing to us. We had music and we had art everyday and he taught me how to sing Ave Maria in the third grade. And I actually sang, and my very first  performance was singing in one of the large churches on the Eastside for Palm Sunday service. I sang Ave Maria, and I think that was a moment that I knew, well I knew I loved singing, because I always sang. I was raised as an only child and my mother had a really pretty, I guess it would probably be called a lyric soprano, she had this really beautiful soprano voice. She sang all the time. I'd wake up and she'd be in the kitchen fixing breakfast or whatever and she'd be singing. So it was a wonderful life to me.

>>INTERVIEWER: Oh, that's amazing. Ave Maria in the third grade, that in itself is beautiful. That is not easy to sing.

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Well I don't even think I'd attempt to sing it today, because then I had the little child-like soprano voice.

>>INTERVIEWER: Oh, right, that helps. And how long did you have this teacher? Was it just one year or?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: It was through, oh I had him, there were only 4 teachers in the school, so they switched classes and came in and out of the rooms. And there were only four rooms, so there were two grades per room. So by the time I got through what would be called middle school or junior high, that's when the integration started. And we left our little safe, secure school and went to, my junior high middle school hadn't been finished yet so I went to Marion Franklin but through George C. Beery, which ended up being the middle school. That's in the south end. And I remember the first day of that school year because there was probably forty-some African American children, colored children at the time, and all the student body was invited into the gymnasium. Everyone was milling around, talking, and we were just kind of there, kind of afraid of what would happen next. And the bell rang and all the white students left the room and we were just sitting there not knowing what to do, and then one of the teachers came in. It was so funny because I always think of Noah's Ark, and they called us two by two because there were two rooms in the school. It was okay after we, it took a little bit of getting used to, but we didn't have any problems back then. We kind of just got into the groove, didn't get to participate in a lot of things, I remember, but we began to bring about a change. 

I remember we had a sit in and all that. Oh yeah. We had a girl, a very popular girl in our community, and every year she would try out for the cheerleading squad, and she was clearly the best kid in the whole school, boy or girl. And she would never make it. So, the one year, the last day when they announced the cheerleaders, we all decided we would sit in at the office. We were the last kids to leave school anyway, our bus was the last to arrive, so we all went out and stood in front of the principal's office. Nobody said a word, we just stood there. They finally came out to see what was wrong and we had one student that told what our demands were. Why isn't Cory cheerleader, blah, blah, blah. So they didn't tell us anything then that day. And the next year when school started, that school year, the very first day of class, they announced that there were six cheerleaders this year and she was one.

>>INTERVIEWER: She was added?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Yeah, she was added. Parents didn't know that we did that, we did that on our own. We were afraid of repercussions at home. Back then you didn't buck the system up at all, and we were really afraid of what was going on nationally, when you read about the sit-ins and whatever. And we were like why are they doing that? And then just to get that satisfaction of knowing that we had actually made a statement and that it was thought about and it was considered and it was deemed good, I think it took a lot of us in a different direction.

>>INTERVIEWER: Absolutely. And was it an okay year for that cheerleader?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Yeah, oh she ended up being the captain of cheerleading squad. She would make up cheers that they did, she was fabulous. She was very athletic so she did a lot of cartwheels and stuff, and it was great. They loved her. But it just took getting in the door, I guess.

>>INTERVIEWER: That's great. It sounds like it was a safe space.

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Yes, it really was, it really was. We had our, there was still segregation, trust me, but we did well. We did. I haven't even visited Marion Franklin in a long time, I should go down and check it out. After back then, I would try out for different plays, and I'd never get picked, whatever the part. But I was always in choir. As an extra. It was wonderful, I do think back to those times as really good, happy times. As a matter of fact, I think my high school choir, glee club, or whatever they call it, that was the first time that the word jazz was mentioned to me, and for our spring concert I had one little line in a solo, in a solo in a song, Embraceable You. And that was it, I was gone from then on. 

I loved to read. I was always a kid that loved to read. Being raised by myself, I did a lot of reading. And my parents were not educated. I think, oh God, I think one had a third grade education, probably both of them, because my mother was born on John's Island, which is off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, and my dad was born in Columbia, South Carolina, or not in the city, but Columbia, South Carolina. And they had very little education. We would visit John's Island because my mother's sisters still lived there, and it was like, I think as a kid I thought we were going to Africa because it was like swamps and tress that were so covered with moss you couldn't tell the tree from the moss, and animals. So, not scary, but certainly a lot different from what I was used to, even here in the city. And I would go down and the families would have, I don't remember what they were called, they had a certain name for them but they were actually just little pieces of paper, because they raised most of their, well especially their vegetables and thing, chickens and pigs, but they would have to go to this little, you can't call it a comfort store, but some place on the island to buy flour and sugar and whatever. And there was no electricity when we first went down, so I think they would buy oil for lamps or something. 

But anyway, they would always have this piece of paper that said how much they owed, like a monthly thing, and I would get down and I would tally it up, even like third grade through fourth grade. As simple as it was, but they were being cheated, so I would go down the list and I would add it up. No this is not what this is. And so, and I think the second or third time I went down there my mother was kind of fearful, she says oh you're going to get me killed down here. She had this accent. And we didn't pass a school because I'm not sure where she was originally, I think she was born on the island but i don't know where her ancestors were from and I'm not able to find that out now because there's really no sense from that time on the island. But she had this beautiful accent, she would pronounce the word vegetable like veg-a-tah-bol and she never said the word "woman", it was always wiman. Just a wonderful little thing. But she was kind of afraid that I was going to get them in trouble. And I remember the for white only signs and the for colored only signs and I would go to the signs that said for white only because I wanted to see if it was different. I wasn't trying to be disobedient but I was curious.

>>INTERVIEWER: Did anyone ever say anything to you?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Oh yeah. They would. The white people wouldn't really say anything, they'd just kind of look at you, they knew that i was not from the south, I guess. But it was grand, it really was. So, I have plans to visit South Carolina again, this year, because i haven't been in awhile. 

>>INTERVIEWER: Do you still have family down there?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: I don't. I can't find anybody down there. That's another part of this journey that I'm on because I had wonderful parents, they were wonderful, simple folk, disciplined very hard, but they were very nice people. But I've always had the desire to find my birth mother too. So, I'm still on that journey and if, when I do get to South Carolina this year, I do have some paperwork of land that she once owned and that kind of stuff, all that now is commercial, there's golf courses and everything down there. And she sold her land years ago, and it wasn't until I was married that I realized she'd sold it. But I do plan to go down there and see whatever I can find.

>>INTERVIEWER: You mentioned reading lots of books, did you have favorites or do you have favorites now?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Oh goodness. I had favorites, I can't remember what they were. I really liked books with illustrations as a child because I was always into my crayons and coloring books. And I would copy images that I saw and I really liked doing that. I can't remember any certain books. I know I had the Nancy Drew, I had some of those. My mother loved to book shop and I remember going with her over on Parson's Avenue, it was a series of thrift stores and she just loved them, and I didn't know at the time that I had so many allergies, but I would go into a thrift store and start sneezing like crazy. It was the dust and the mold and all that, we didn't have allergists. So, I'd have to go out of the store and sit and wait on her. But she'd always look for books. I remember the Nancy Drew, I remember coloring books, I remember making, I used to get books that had paper dolls in them. I loved those.

>>INTERVIEWER: That's great. Do you still read and draw?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: I don't read as much as I want to, and I've got the easel sitting at home and I think every week I look at it and say I've got to get back into that. But, I haven't really done anything. I've promised people things and I still haven't done them. I've gotten really lazy in the last few months.

>>INTERVIEWER: You're settling in and the weather.

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Blame it on the weather.

>>INTERVIEWER: Absolutely. Oh gosh. Well you mentioned your mom used to sing. Did the two of you ever sing together?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: No, we didn't. We didn't. She made sure that I sang in church. And I was very shy back then, so I never really did any solos at church. Well we had a program and I had a poem to do or something and I was comfortable with that, but I never really led a solo in the choir, I was always comfortable just being in the choir.

>>INTERVIEWER: Was she in the choir as well?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: No she wasn't, she was not in the choir. She attended church faithfully and like I said, she sang all the time, but she never sang in the choir. And my dad didn't sing at all.

>>INTERVIEWER: Okay, I was just going to ask if he was musical at all. No?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: No, he was very quiet. He never said anything, she did all the talking for him. 

I'm most comfortable with jazz. And back in the day, they said I was a jazz singer. Well I listened to everything, I loved to listen to all kinds of music. I love the jam session. I like to go and just listen. It doesn't bother me if I don't sing, as long as I have it around, as long as I can hear it I'm perfectly fine with it. Yeah, jam sessions are good. I guess I never aspired to be, not to say that I didn't want to be at the top of my trade, I wanted to be the best that I could be, but I never wanted to be a, I guess the word would be a star, for lack of a better word. That was never me. I don't think I have ever had the temperament to be constantly on the road or in the lights so much. It is my passion, like I said, I love music. So, in one respect it is my. But I do, I love it, I really do, I love what it brings to me. So, I'll continue doing it as long as I can.

>>INTERVIEWER: Absolutely, you bet. How has your music career been in this area particularly?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: It's been fine, it's always been a second job for me. Well, now it's my only job I guess. No, I can't even say that because I do some acting, I do some voice-overs. It's primarily my job, but my entire career, if you want to say it, it's always been like a second job. Raised my family, I went on to CCAD, Columbus College of Art and Design, got a degree, and worked for years at JC Penny, as their advertising person, illustrator and copy-righter, and would sing on weekends, and whenever I could. And it was wonderful, it was good. It was good things.

>>INTERVIEWER: Okay, so what was your degree from CCAD?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Fashion illustration and advertising.

>>INTERVIEWER: Okay, so there's your drawing aspect, I see. No wonder you have the easel.

>>MARY MCCLENDON: It's there, but I'm going to get back to it.

>>INTERVIEWER: How long did you do that work?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: I was at JC Penny for 23 years. And then everything started to change and now, of course, it's all computerized and I didn't enjoy that part of it. I still like to realistic drawing, I enjoyed that part of it, I didn't enjoy the graphics and learning the computer, I guess. I'm really computer illiterate. I can get my email, I can send one out, but that's about it.

Because I married into a large family, my husband had six other siblings and cousins everywhere. His parents were from Georgia. And we didn't visit there often, but I do remember a few times that we went down south and visited his family.

>>INTERVIEWER: Any similarities from going to South Carolina that way?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Not so much, except for going out in the country the very first time, I think it was called, the name of the little country town was Concord, Concord, Georgia, and we drove for I don't know how long and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, it was that dark. I mean there were no lights, of course no lights, and it must have been a cloudy night because I don't even remember seeing stars. I remember it was so dark, and they knew where they were going, but I was petrified, like oh my god, where are we? But good people.

>>INTERVIEWER: What would you think that your children would say, some main things that you instilled in them?

>>MARY MCCLENDON: Oh I don't know, you'd almost have to ask them. I know they would say hard work because they're hard workers, they're really willing to be better each day, to learn something new each day, doesn't have to be new, maybe something remembered, maybe something that you did and you've forgotten about. Just try to be the best that you can be. I would hope that they would say that. My grandchildren, for the most part, they all can sing. They don't sing, they've been in choirs for school and church, but they dance. The love dancing. I don't think any of them have had any professional, well I take that back, Tyler's had some professional training, but for the most part they haven't. The love dance and they love music, but they don't sing. Sing as in sing. It's a fabulous journey that I'm on and I'm still embracing it everyday. 

>>INTERVIEWER: That's great, good, good.

>>MARY MCCLENDON: So many musical experiences and I've met so many people. I know that I'm now on a journey where I have begun to teach, so I'm at the Jazz Academy now, well I'm not, I shouldn't say now, I'm not there presently, but I did the fall quarter and I'll be back in the spring starting April 6th for a six week course. It's every Tuesday night. And basically I'm just sharing what I've done with the music and hopefully showing somebody that it's a good thing. That's in the newly renovated Lincoln Theater, it's a jazz academy, with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra group. And it's funny, too because I think when I first got out of high school, I probably could have gone to OSU, but it was safe at the time, my mother said you can be a nurse or a teacher, and I thought I don't want to be a nurse or a teacher, and I didn't go to OSU at the time. And I've always liked teaching when I admit it, and even in high school we had something called Future Teachers of America, but I would go after Marion Franklin High School was finished, they allowed me to walk over to the middle school, George C. Beery, and I think I would go once a week for several weeks at a time, and I loved it. And so, when I was approached to do the Jazz Academy I thought oh I think I used to like doing that, so I'll give it a try.