About Mimi
Mimi Nolte McClellan Krebs was born in Duluth Minnesota in 1922. She lived in Duluth until she was five years old (two doors away from Jim Krebs who became her second husband in 2005), at which time her family moved to a lake on the outskirts of Minneapolis. Like many families they struggled through the depression years but where they lacked for funds they made up for with fun. Being somewhat isolated, they depended on one another for entertainment, and their household was alive with poetry, music and drama. As a child Mimi showed musical talent and was encouraged to study piano. By the time she reached 13 she had composed a number of piano pieces, several song settings of her father’s poetry and an opera, Rumplestiltskin.
She received her B.A. from University of Minnesota with a major in music (Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude; 1943) and continued her studies at Yale University in music theory and composition (she received two separate scholarships at Yale, the Horatio Parker Scholarship and the Charles H. Ditson Scholarship, and studied composition with Quincy Porter and music theory with Paul Hendemith, graduating in 1949). Between degrees she served inWorld War II (WAVE Lt. j.g. USNR). After Yale, Mimi taught music appreciation, fundamentals of music and piano at the University of Minnesota then music theory at Vassar College.
In 1952 she married Sam McClellan, whom she met during his residency at the University of Minnesota medical school. They settled in Boston, Mimi found work teaching music theory at the South End Music Center, and they became Baha’is. Shortly thereafter they moved to Cambridge in order to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly there. Other accomplishments include their three children, John, Charlie and Maggie, and twenty years of Friday night firesides in their home. Many Baha’is discovered the Faith through the McClellan firesides, and a significant number of those gave up everything to become international Baha’i pioneers. During the Cambridge years, in addition to being a housewife and mother, Mimi taught piano lessons to neighborhood children and produced a lot of music for the Baha’is, including children’s songs, choral pieces, chamber music and 5 musical plays (The Wonder Lamp, the White Roses of Persia, I Wouldn’t Miss the Chance, Every Friday Night, and the Education of Henry Halifax). She edited two Baha’i songbooks: Dawn Song and Sing a New Song, and was music editor for Brilliant Star, a national Baha’i magazine for children, for over 20 years.
In 1974 the McClellans left Cambridge and moved to Danville, Kentucky. Mimi taught music fundamentals and piano part-time at Centre College, and she continued composing. The Kentucky period produced a number of serious works, including her musical drama based on the life of Tahirih (this work has yet to be performed in its entirety) and a number of chamber works including two commissions: a score for chorus, organ trumpets and handbells for the installation ceremony of the new President of Centre College (1989) and Three Pieces for Cello and Piano for the Annual Kentucky music Teacher’s Association Convention (1990). In 1990 Mimi won the Al Smith Kentucky Artist Fellowship.
Sam McClellan passed away in 1998, leaving Mimi to hold down the fort. Five years later she sold her Kentucky home and headed back to Massachusetts to live close to her son John and her two granddaughters. To make a long story short, she took up with her old friend Jim Krebs from childhood, also widowed, and they married. Mimi passed away at their home in Marblehead on February 5, 2019. She is survived by husband Jim, her son John McClellan of Hatfield Ma, her son Charlee and daughter Maggie of Seattle WA, and her two granddaughters Elizabeth and Julia.
She received her B.A. from University of Minnesota with a major in music (Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude; 1943) and continued her studies at Yale University in music theory and composition (she received two separate scholarships at Yale, the Horatio Parker Scholarship and the Charles H. Ditson Scholarship, and studied composition with Quincy Porter and music theory with Paul Hendemith, graduating in 1949). Between degrees she served inWorld War II (WAVE Lt. j.g. USNR). After Yale, Mimi taught music appreciation, fundamentals of music and piano at the University of Minnesota then music theory at Vassar College.
In 1952 she married Sam McClellan, whom she met during his residency at the University of Minnesota medical school. They settled in Boston, Mimi found work teaching music theory at the South End Music Center, and they became Baha’is. Shortly thereafter they moved to Cambridge in order to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly there. Other accomplishments include their three children, John, Charlie and Maggie, and twenty years of Friday night firesides in their home. Many Baha’is discovered the Faith through the McClellan firesides, and a significant number of those gave up everything to become international Baha’i pioneers. During the Cambridge years, in addition to being a housewife and mother, Mimi taught piano lessons to neighborhood children and produced a lot of music for the Baha’is, including children’s songs, choral pieces, chamber music and 5 musical plays (The Wonder Lamp, the White Roses of Persia, I Wouldn’t Miss the Chance, Every Friday Night, and the Education of Henry Halifax). She edited two Baha’i songbooks: Dawn Song and Sing a New Song, and was music editor for Brilliant Star, a national Baha’i magazine for children, for over 20 years.
In 1974 the McClellans left Cambridge and moved to Danville, Kentucky. Mimi taught music fundamentals and piano part-time at Centre College, and she continued composing. The Kentucky period produced a number of serious works, including her musical drama based on the life of Tahirih (this work has yet to be performed in its entirety) and a number of chamber works including two commissions: a score for chorus, organ trumpets and handbells for the installation ceremony of the new President of Centre College (1989) and Three Pieces for Cello and Piano for the Annual Kentucky music Teacher’s Association Convention (1990). In 1990 Mimi won the Al Smith Kentucky Artist Fellowship.
Sam McClellan passed away in 1998, leaving Mimi to hold down the fort. Five years later she sold her Kentucky home and headed back to Massachusetts to live close to her son John and her two granddaughters. To make a long story short, she took up with her old friend Jim Krebs from childhood, also widowed, and they married. Mimi passed away at their home in Marblehead on February 5, 2019. She is survived by husband Jim, her son John McClellan of Hatfield Ma, her son Charlee and daughter Maggie of Seattle WA, and her two granddaughters Elizabeth and Julia.