Barbara Jean McIlveen: A life of Grace, Elegance and Style

Barbara Jean McIlveen is living her best life and savoring every moment of it. Humans of Galveston was honored to spend some spend some time with the retired Galveston educator to hear her story of educational excellence, overcoming the odds and uplifting others to succeed. Here’s what she had to say:

Humans of Galveston: What can you tell us about your family?

Barbara: My mom’s name was Louise. It was Minnie Louis but she did not like Minnie so she went strictly by Louise. Mom cleaned houses. My dad’s name was Thomas Theodore Thomas. I used to get teased in school all the time. The teachers would say, ‘What’s the matter? Your grandmother ran out of names?’ (laughs) I said no, he was named for his father and his grandfather. It was passed down. Dad worked at a box factory where he built wooden boxes, and he was a pastor. I was raised in the Pentecostal church. Daddy was a carpenter as well, and he was an electrician, he was a plumber. He could do all of that. You know how they say, ‘Jack of all trades, master of none.’ He was a master of all of them. My parents came from large families themselves. I have five sisters and two brothers, and I am next to last..

Humans of Galveston: What was it like growing up in Toledo, Ohio?

Barbara: It was wonderful. My dad was known all over the city because he had a radio program, “The Church of God and Christ.” He had a beautiful speaking voice as well as a beautiful singing voice. People knew who we were and I felt it was a privilege because I thought my dad was the best thing on Earth. We would visit different churches in Detroit, and they would come to our church. We would take little road trips and my mother would have all this good food and everyone would want to sit by Sister TT, as they would call her. My dad was called Elder TT. It was wonderful growing up. We lived down the street from a park where we had a swimming pool.

Humans of Galveston: In the South, most Blacks were not allowed to swim in public pools that were segregated.

Barbara: We never had segregation where I was. We had discrimination, but not segregation. In fact, I lived on a street where there were Germans and Italians and Blacks. That’s how I was raised. I would eat in their house and they would eat at our house. I learned how to eat Sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. They learned how to eat fried chicken and whatever my mother cooked. It was fun. At my elementary school most of the teachers were White and the principal was White. The assistant principal was Black, and I had a Black teacher in elementary school. At my middle school – at that time is was called junior high – most of the teachers were White. There were maybe two Black teachers. There was one Black principal in the city whose name was Mr. Houston. I was so enamored with him. I was just so pleased to know that he was able to reach that position.

Humans of Galveston: You grew an environment where there was discrimination, but not segregation, as you described. What was it like when you came to Texas.

Barbara: It was amazing to me. First of all, I could not believe that people could ask you personal questions with no hesitation and expected you to answer it. Things like, ‘How much money do you make? Is your family rich?’ You know, questions like that that I wasn’t used to. Where I came from that was a no-no. You didn’t invade people’s privacy like that. I’ve never heard anyone call me the “N” word, but I did hear them call people that here. It made me angry. I told my daughter that it’s probably good that I wasn’t raised in the South because I probably wouldn’t have made it out alive. (laughs)

Humans of Galveston: You came of age in the ‘60s and fought for civil rights. Did they have the sit-ins in Toledo?

Barbara: No we didn’t have sit-ins. But my parents grew up in segregation and they told us about the things that they had encountered. In fact, my dad when he was 15 had to leave his town because his mother sent him to town to get some kerosene for the lamp. When he came out of the store, some white men were sitting on the side of the store and one of them put his foot out to trip my father. Well, at 15 my father was tall at 6’3” and he took that kerosene can and whipped that guy with it. Well, they came looking for my father. My grandmother told him to go, and he went to Chicago where his sister lived.

Humans of Galveston: What are your thoughts about today’s political environment? (EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview took place before the 2022 midterm elections).

Barbara: I think we’re in real trouble. They’re doing everything to try and bring us back to where we were, and it’s even worse this time because our democracy in in peril. These are fascists. When Trump came on the scene and began to spew out his filth and his vitriol, that just gave all those hidden racists the opportunity to say, ‘Now I can say what I want to say.’ It is ridiculous at this day and time. I’m very worried. If we lose the House and the Senate, it’s all over. The Supreme Court is already compromised. People are apathetic. Blacks are not getting out to vote, and our young people are not going to the polls even though we’re trying to let them know how important it is. Although they don’t have the experience of going through segregation, they have come to a place where they can say what they want to say and do what they want to do. They don’t understand that that can all be taken away right away.

Humans of Galveston: When did you come to Galveston, and what brought you here?

Barbara: I came to Galveston in 1985 with my husband, whose who mother lived here had gotten ill. I join Galveston schools as a teacher. I taught third grade for two years at Parker Elementary, and after that I went to L.A. Morgan (Elementary School) as a principal. After I was there for two years, Superintendent Jim Pickett came in an asked me to take over Sterling Patrick’s position and I became assistant superintendent for elementary education.

Humans of Galveston: What’s your take on today’s youth, particularly middle school and high schoolers?

Barbara: I think that they’re not given the credit that they should be. These youngsters are so talented but they just need guidance. They need someone to be there for them to support them and tell them that they are doing a good job, and to try to steer them in the direction that they should go. Kids are the future, and I just love them. I see some of them that are going the wrong way, using profanity and with their trousers hanging down almost to their knees. But there is a way that you can talk to youngsters to get them to change their ways. I’ve always said that in all my experiences as an educator, I’ve never had a kid to disrespect me. Not ever.

Humans of Galveston: What worries you the most about today’s youths?

Barbara: That they don’t see the seriousness of what they should aspire to be, or that they don’t understand the seriousness of the political era, or that their parents are not giving them the right tools to understand.

Humans of Galveston: Paint a picture of Galveston in the mid ‘80s when you arrived.

Barbara: I was surprised to see that there were pockets of places where people lived with their own ethnicity, and there were pockets where people couldn’t live. That bothered me. That was a picture that I wasn’t used to. I grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood. So to come and see segregated neighborhoods still, and to see the school that I was the principal of with mostly Black kids. They bused kids in to be able to integrate them.

Humans of Galveston: When did you retire, and what are you doing now?

Barbara: I retired December 31, 1999. Right now I’m having the time of my life. I sold my half acre, four-bedroom house in La Marque that I lived in for 33 years. I had lived in Galveston for five years at 1523 Ave. O before I moved to La Marque in 1989. What I am doing now is quilting and sewing things to put on the front of your stove – they’re called oven dresses – taking dish towels and putting tops on them to look like little dresses. I’m making mud rugs which look like placemats but they’re smaller and you put your cup on them. I moved to Village at MorningStar retirement community in Texas City and we have our social calendar which consists of crafts, going to breakfast on Thursdays and watching movies on Fridays.

Humans of Galveston: What advice do you have for young people today?

Barbara: My father and mother always told me, always do your best the first time around because it saves you money, time, energy and it gives you pride. So my advice to young people day is that whatever you do, always be the best at whatever you do.

Humans of Galveston: One of your favorite quotes that posted on Facebook is, ‘You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.’ What is it about this quote that resonates in you?

Barbara: You’re writing your obituary as you live, so however you’re living is making your story right now. But what you give to others is going to last. When you’re gone that’s going to remain.

Humans of Galveston: What final words would you like to share with Humans of Galveston?

Barbara: I’m just grateful for the life that I’ve lived. I told my daughter and my grandson and everybody that I know, if the Lord takes me tomorrow, I cannot complain. My life has been wonderful. All the sickness and illnesses that I’ve had, He’s never forgotten me. I am 18 years of being a (liver) transplant recipient. It was a perfect match. It was God’s plan that we would be matched together. From the moment I received the liver, it has worked fine. That was in May 2004. I had waited four and a half years for this. But that was just the Lord’s way of working it out because her liver and my liver were supposed to be together, and it’s been 18 years.

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Published by Bobby Stanton