Judith McCulloh Papers, 1960-2003 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Judith Marie McCulloh (1935-2014) was born in Spring Valley, IL on August 16^th, 1935. She attended Peoria Central High School. She received a general diploma from Cottey College, a bachelor’s degree in English from Ohio Wesleyan University, and a master’s degree in English from Ohio State University. She received a Ph.D. in folklore in 1970 from Indiana University, with minors in anthropology and linguistics. She moved to Urbana, IL in the 1960s when her husband, Leon McCulloh accepted a job at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During this time, she edited two LP recordings for the University of Illinois Campus Folksong Club: a collection of cowboy and rodeo songs called The Hell-Bound Train by Glenn Ohrlin, annotated with folklorist Archie Green, and a collection of field recordings from central and southern Illinois titled Green Fields of Illinois.

Judith McCulloh began her career at the University of Illinois Press as an assistant editor in 1972. It was in the same year that she launched the Music in American Life series with Archie Green’s book Only a Miner. The acclaimed book series was devoted to the study of music in the United States as shaped by folklore, English literature and labor history. She became an honorary member of the Society for Ethnomusicology in 2005 and served as the chair of the board of trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for two terms (1990-92 and 1996-98) Among other professional honors, she was the president of the American Folklore Society (1986-1987). She retired from the University of Illinois Press in 2007 as the Press's assistant director and executive editor. Judith McCulloh passed away on July 13^th, 2014.