Joe McQueen Oral History Interview

Oral history interview by Mary Heers with Joe McQueen. Topics inlcude: Enjoying driving since the early age of eight years; Celebrating his 73rd wedding anniversary; Being a musician and playing the saxaphone for eighty-three years; Growing up in Oklahoma; Being inspired to be a musician by his cousin; Different instruments he tried before the saxaphone; Playing in a band and frequently being on the road; Deciding to give up the traveling after marriage; A gig in Odgen and deciding to stay; Being in too many bands to count; Having his own jazz band, the Joe McQueen Band since moving to Ogden; Working for the Union Pacific railroad; Having an iteration of the same phone number for sixty-five years; His uncle eaching him to drive and getting his first delevery job at the age of ten years; Different jobs he had over the years; The death of his parents when he was young and living with grandparents; The Great Depression; His grandparents home burning down and losing everything; Building a new house with an indoor toilet; Getting a deferment from military service to play music during World War II; Working at Hill Airforce Base and the Union Station in Ogden train station as a porter; Teaching auto mechanics at Weber State University and a local technical college; Learning mechanics from a man in Oklahoma; Running a mechanic business out of his home garage until he was eighty-years old; His last non-musical job being fourteen years as a volunteer driver for senior citizens; Still playing music one or two nights a week at the age of ninty-seven; His best mechanic student being a small woman from Wyoming; Producung three CDs and one vinyl record of his music; Not having children of his own, but helping raise his neices and nephews and mentoring youth in the Ogden area.

Mr. Joe McQueen was born in 1919, and has a long life of working and being a musician. For most of his life he has been a saxophone player in various jazz bands, most of them named The Joe McQueen Band. When he was very young (eight) he began working deliveries for the Coca-Cola Company; then he worked pressing and delivering clothing. He worked as a driver, transporting CCC members to and from their worksite. A little while later, Mr. McQueen started working at Hill Air Force base, then he spent ten years working for the railroad in Ogden, Utah. At one point, he worked to build trucks for a motor company. He also used to teach auto mechanics at Weber State University, as well as a tech school; he ran an auto shop out of the back of his home for a while, working on cars. His very last job was volunteering in the Senior Companion Program, driving around senior citizens.