b. 1935 in St. Louis to Ruth Celeste and Purcia Purcell Rawls
mother re-married to Jesse Dalton Johnson
full name Colleen Johnson McElroy
B.A. Kansas City
studied in the speech and hearing program at the University of Pittsburgh
was director of Speech and Hearing Services at Western Washington University
Ph.D. 1973 in ethnolinguistic patterns of dialect differences and oral traditions from the University of Washington
dissertation title: Semantic differentiation as a result of code switching.
professor of English and the first African American woman to be promoted to full professor at the University of Washington
won a Fulbright to Madagascar
married, had two children, and was divorced
married poet David McElroy and began writing seriously herself in her mid-thirties
Colleen McElroy in Ploughshares