Dr. Joe Barry Mullins
Dr. Joe Barry Mullins truly the “musician’s musician”, probably musically enriched and affected the lives of more students and teachers of music during and after his fifty four plus years of teaching in the Southeast, than has any other person. In fact, the abbreviated resume of his accomplishments is much too lengthy to enumerate here, as it covers more than three pages!
Dr. Mullins began his musical career rather late, learning the drum his senior year in one of Roy Martin’s bands in Arkansas. He achieved national prominence that same year winning a national High School drum contest and was featured on the cover of the “School Musician”. He taught band in Pine Bluff, Arkansas from 1934 to 1936, and moved to Itta Bena, Miss. In 1936, where he taught until 1940. he married a former student, Virginia L. Mullins and had two daughters, Alice and Joyce, both teachers, and two sons, Joe Barry Mullins Jr. and Thad Mullins, both band directors. Mullins received his Bachelor’s Music from Memphis College in 1934, and later earned a Master’s from Peabody and his EdD from the University of Illinois. He spent ten years at various positions in Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana from 1949-1951 he taught at Louisiana Tech. His bands at Northeast Louisiana University, from 1951 through 1969, were legendary, and in 1969 through 1980 he crowned his career with 11 years as Director of Bands at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Mullins has served as a clinician, adjudicator, orchestra, band, and choir director in over thirty states, and he continued to demand and receive the highest level of musicianship from all of the groups he directed. Even after “retirement”, he served as director of two college and three municipal bands.
Dr. Mullins began his musical career rather late, learning the drum his senior year in one of Roy Martin’s bands in Arkansas. He achieved national prominence that same year winning a national High School drum contest and was featured on the cover of the “School Musician”. He taught band in Pine Bluff, Arkansas from 1934 to 1936, and moved to Itta Bena, Miss. In 1936, where he taught until 1940. he married a former student, Virginia L. Mullins and had two daughters, Alice and Joyce, both teachers, and two sons, Joe Barry Mullins Jr. and Thad Mullins, both band directors. Mullins received his Bachelor’s Music from Memphis College in 1934, and later earned a Master’s from Peabody and his EdD from the University of Illinois. He spent ten years at various positions in Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana from 1949-1951 he taught at Louisiana Tech. His bands at Northeast Louisiana University, from 1951 through 1969, were legendary, and in 1969 through 1980 he crowned his career with 11 years as Director of Bands at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Mullins has served as a clinician, adjudicator, orchestra, band, and choir director in over thirty states, and he continued to demand and receive the highest level of musicianship from all of the groups he directed. Even after “retirement”, he served as director of two college and three municipal bands.
