When Jane McClellan, the 2015 Kingdom of Callaway Supper guest of honor, returned home to Fulton earlier this week, she was given the opportunity to reconnect with her roots and the people who watched her grow up. She said the homecoming is the closest experience she's had to life flashing before her eyes.
"I got to hear stories of where kids that I babysat 30 years ago are now, and where some of my babysitters are now, they all have kids," she said at the Kingdom Supper event. "All kinds of wonderful stories and it's wonderful to get to know all of you again..."
McClellan spoke inside Dulany Auditorium Tuesday as the featured speaker for the 110th Kingdom Supper. Julie Boyd Uhls, the 2015 supper president, selected McClellan for the honor. They both graduated from Fulton High School in 1993 and shared many teachers throughout their school years, including McClellan's mother, Susan Krumm.
After high school, McClellan graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago and led a career in managing consumer research for McCain Foods and Sargento. The Fulton native is currently the manager of consumer and market insights for the J.M. Smucker Company in Orrville, Ohio.
"I'm proud to have Jane as my guest of honor," Uhls said. "Not only do I admire her career, I also her admire her ideas and viewpoints. Jane is down to earth, intelligent, well spoken and a wonderful wife and mother - truly an inspirational woman. Jane always remembers and appreciates her roots here in Callaway County."
That appreciation was expressed as McClellan took the stage and spoke into the microphone. She talked about her personal roots and how those run deep in the tradition of the Kingdom Supper - dating all the way back to 1916. Five of her family members have served as its president: her mother Susan Krumm,was the 96th president in 2001; her great-uncle John Grant acted as president in 1968; her grandfather Joe Grant was the president in 1952 and her great grandfather J.M. Tate served as president in 1916.
"So, I'm following in some pretty big footsteps and it really is an honor," McClellan said. "That's how I knew how important it was when I got to look at history and see how many esteemed family came before me on this stage here and that's so exciting."
From Chicago to Orrville with places in between, McClellan said she realized the characteristics that make Callawegians unique once she was outside county lines.
"That's really what I want to talk about are some of the things we have strengths in that I necessarily didn't recognize when I lived here," she said. "But since I've been away, I really started to recognize some of the things that make all of you so special. And, I've appreciated it more as I've gone through life."
Then, McClellan highlighted those strengths, first speaking of the Callaway County work ethic. In an agriculture community like that of Callaway County, she said hard work is evident. It all clicked for McClellan when she first saw the "So God Made a Farmer' Chrysler Ram Truck Super Bowl commercial, which sounds audio from speech of Paul Harvey, a conservative radio broadcaster.
Part of Harvey's speech reads: "God said, "...I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon - and mean it.' So God made a farmer."
"I thought of people in this room (and) a lot of people who are our family, who certainly learned to work hard and have a good work ethic," McClellan said. "But, you know, we'd have to get work done before we play, or get "er done as my dad would say. But, we also know how to balance it and stop and smell the roses, or smell the hay as I've said here. People in big cities don't always stop and take time for others.
There seems to be a race to get things done, but not necessarily a purpose for getting things done. I think people here really appreciate why we're doing this hard work."
She also spoke of the sense of humor she developed growing up - the same sense of humor that has helped her break through barriers with difficult work situations.
"That has probably been one of my biggest strengths - the sense of humor that we all share," McClellan said. "It's the not just a sense of humor - it's not like anyone else's - it's a self-deprecating, disarming sense of humor that again in a business setting, I found, builds relationships that many other people aren't able to do."
When discussing the genuine concern for others that Callawegians possess, McClellan spoke about her mother, a teacher for more than 30 years. McClellan said Susan Krumm came to her mind as she tried to find someone who personified the meaning of integrity. That statement was met with audience applause.
McClellan reflected on visits to places around Fulton like the grocery store or the shoe store and how she and her mother would often bump into someone Krumm knew, usually from school. With each interaction, McClellan said Krumm would not only remember a person's name, but also a fact or memory about them. That was followed up with a question inquiring about the person's relatives.
"Going through life with her, I learned the importance of knowing someone, truly knowing someone and caring about them and taking a moment to value them and show them you remember them - that they had an impact on you," she said.
In closing, McClellan said she is proud to work for J.M. Smucker Company - a place that holds many of the same values as Callawegians. To exemplify that, she displayed a company memo titled, "Our Commitment to Each Other," written by Paul Smucker in the early 1980s that was recently re-sent. Smucker listed four "basic thoughts" that can benefit daily life: Thank you for a job well done; listening with your full attention; looking for the good in others; and sense of humor.
This memo, she said, looked as if it was the playbook for Fulton.