Webb, Mena

Mena Fuller Webb is a writer and creative writing teacher of Durham, N.C.

Mena Fuller Webb is a writer and creative writing teacher of Durham, N.C.

Between 1975 and 1986, Mena Webb undertook the writing of a biography on Julian Shakespeare Carr (1845-1924). Carr, more than any other individual, was responsible for the striking growth experienced by the city of Durham in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the growth of his business, Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco.

Webb's work was inspired by her own childhood recollections of General Carr, as he was known to everyone in his day, with whose grandchildren she had played at the Carr mansion, Somerset Villa. A good deal of Webb's research involved personal recollections of her childhood friends, with whom she conducted an extensive correspondence, collecting letters, clippings,and artifacts, in addition to memories. Jule Carr: General without an Army was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1987.