Conversations with Barbara McClintock

[Timothy Mulligan]

She was very difficult on the researchers but she was nice to me. I don't know, I may be making up my own story but I think she saw in me a hard worker, willing to learn. I grew the last plants she ever crossed. The last maize plants she had at Uplands, I grew for her. It's an honor for me but I wish I could have done more for her. She used to come up to mentor a researcher and I would get to gab with her for a bit. She used to play banjo and so I could talk to her about improvising a jam or we would talk about geese or baseball. I tried not to let her down ever as far as the plants went. Working for a Nobel laureate is one of the best things I have ever done.