‘When he told his stories, it came from the heart’Published Nov 01, 2026Last updated 1 hour ago8 minute readJim MacLellan delivers one of his monologues during The Men of the Deeps’ Christmas Show at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay in late November 2025, his final performance with the miners choir. MacLellan died on Friday at the age of 92. Photo by MATTHEW INGRAHAM FILEArticle contentJust as The Men of the Deeps were preparing for a Sunday night gala performance at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay as part of their 60th anniversary tour, tributes have been pouring in for last of the miners choir’s founding members.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentArticle contentJim MacLellan, the Glace Bay native affectionately known as “Big Jim” and who, since 1966, made a craft out of captivating audiences with his deep bass vocals as well as his story monologues on mining life, died Friday night from hospital–attracted influenza A.Article contentArticle contentHe was 92.Article contentAlthough MacLellan retired from performing with the Men of the Deeps last November, “Big Jim” continued to make appearances at the Cape Breton Miners Museum, also in Glace Bay, according to executive director Mary Pat Mombourquette, as well as New Waterford singer-songwriter Jenn Sheppard.Article content Men of the Deeps musical director Stephen Muise, right, speaks during a Savoy Theatre performance in late November 2025 featuring the miners choir — and the final formal performance of miners choir member Jim MacLellan, shown seated at left. Photo by MATTHEW INGRAHAM FILEArticle content‘IT CAME FROM THE HEART’Article content“He told everybody he retired, and then he continued to come to the Miners Museum events and did his monologues at every single one of them this entire summer, and even a few weeks ago,” said Sheppard, who is also currently working on a book about the Men of the Deeps.Article content“I had messages from people all over the place saying, ‘He never missed a beat. He was just right back on the way he was, like he had a brain that wouldn’t quit.’”Article contentOver his 60 years performing with the Men of the Deeps, “Big Jim” would often take time out to be the consummate storyteller, often with a touch of humour.Article content“When he told his stories, it came from the heart,” musical director Stephen Muise said. “And he had such a great sense of comedic timing.”Article contentArticle contentMuise said MacLellan’s passion for coal mining came with an authentic lived experience.Article contentArticle content“He worked above ground. He worked underground. He worked in the ground. He worked everywhere — and he really took care of the coal mining people,” Muise said. “It’s all that passion and all those stories that he carried with him. He had so much knowledge about the coal mines.”Article content Mary Pat Mombourquette, left, executive director of the Cape Breton Miners Museum in Glace Bay, posted this photo of her with “Big Jim” MacLellan — after he retired from performing with the Men of the Deeps — on her Facebook page. She credits MacLellan for helping get her hired at the museum. Photo by SUPPLIEDArticle contentMombourquette recalled that MacLellan was largely responsible for her getting to work at the Miners Museum.Article content“He was part of the hiring committee that hired me for the Miners Museum (in 2013),” she said. “He was one of my favourite people, to say the least. Article content“He was just a man with great stories, and he could bring he could bring you into that world with his charm.”Article content‘COME BACK TOMORROW’Article contentBorn on June 8, 1934, MacLellan first started working in the mines of the age of 17. Initially, he was encouraged to join the priesthood, but MacLellan thought otherwise.Article content“They put me with the old timers — some of them were in the First World War; some of them were in the great march in New Waterford in 1925. They taught me so much in those two or three years before I transferred into the engineering department,” MacLellan told the Cape Breton Post in an interview last year, just after taking the stage for his final formal appearance with the choir at the Savoy.Article contentHis mining time also allowed him plenty of career advancement.Article content“I (was) still only 20 years old, and so I got in (to) the engineering department, and away we went,” he said. “Eventually, I went to night school and became a surveyor, and later on a field engineer that’s in charge of ventilation and all that. Then I taught night school for 10 years — mining and so on. So I was really engrossed in mining.”Article contentIt was the summer of 1966 when Miles MacDonald, supervisor of No. 12 Colliery in New Waterford, where MacLellan worked, put notices of auditions for a coal miners choir in washhouses in New Waterford and Glace Bay.Article content A young Jim MacLellan during his coal mining days. MacLellan was the 16th person out of around 40 chosen for the Men of the Deeps back then. He would join the likes of Syd Forgeron, Ray Holland, Reg Lambert, Wilfred (Yogi) Muise and Bobby Roper in the miners choir’s early lineup. Photo by SUPPLIEDArticle contentA Miners’ Folk Society wanted to build a miners’ museum for the 1967 centennial year, and the late Nina Cohen, chairperson, came up with the idea to form a choir to sing hymns at the opening.Article contentMacLellan admitted he didn’t know much about music or choir singing when he first auditioned.Article content“When I went up, I told them my history, and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I love to sing, but I don’t know much about singing,’” he recalled, referencing the choir’s first musical director, Steve MacGillivray, and choir founder Cohen, whose enthusiasm for the preservation of mining culture had also led to the founding of the Cape Breton Miners’ Museum in Glace Bay.Article contentArticle content“And (Steve) did the scales with me. He had me go up and down. He kept pounding the low note and had me sing a few lines of one song, Old Man River. And when I got to the bottom notes, he just put his hand up and said, ‘Great. Come back tomorrow.’”Article contentMacLellan was the 16th person out of around 40 chosen for the Men of the Deeps back then. He would join the likes of Syd Forgeron, Ray Holland, Reg Lambert, Wilfred (Yogi) Muise and Bobby Roper in the choir’s early lineup.Article contentThe group has always been comprised of coal miners — with bylaws stating that to become part of the group, its members required mining experience for at least two years.Article contentAnd MacLellan fit that bill easily.Article content“In those days, it was common for the oldest guy in the family to go in the pit. I’d say 90 per cent of the people that lived in Caledonia (neighbourhood of Glace Bay) — that’s the way it worked,” he said.Article content Jim MacLellan shows a picture of the Glace Bay No. 11 Antonians, who were Maritime Junior Baseball champions in 1952. That’s MacLellan in the back row, second from right. Photo by SUPPLIEDArticle content‘THIS IS WHAT HE SHOULD DO’Article contentBut that meant the challenge of balancing work and choir time with his home life.Article contentArticle contentMacLellan married his childhood sweetheart Elsie Nicholson in 1957, and together they had six children — Jim, Sean, Joseph, Carter, Wendy and Kevin. (Elsie passed away in 2022 at age 86.)Article content“He was very strict, but not in a bad way,” recalled Wendy MacLellan, who just turned 60.Article content“But mom was our main parent. Because our dads were gone literally, and somehow they managed to play sports on the weekends and sing in choirs and do church choir. But there’s an interesting dynamic there — that without the women in their lives, none of those men would have been successful.Article content“A lot of men left the choir because it was just too much to take on, But my mother would never have said it’s too much. She would have had to let him figure out that. She just loved him, and she thought if this made him happy, then this is what he should do.”Article contentAs for sports, Wendy said her father loved them all and tried them all.Article content“He was a phenomenal darts player and great bowler. Mom used to give him money at times, like $1 to go down to the rooms for tournaments — and he’d make enough money to be able to pay the mortgage,” she said with a chuckle. “That was because of his arms — he was six-foot-seven, so think about the length of his arms to be able to do that.”Article contentHe also played baseball with the Glace Bay No. 11 Antonians, serving as the team’s pitcher in the early 1950s.Article contentWhile Wendy lived in the United States for 22 years before returning to Cape Breton, she remembers meeting up with her dad when the Men of the Deeps, accompanying Rita MacNeil on her tours, landed in Las Vegas or Florida.Article content“My kids would have been under five for most of those, but they knew the Men of the Deeps probably better than anyone. And a lot of the men loved seeing them because they were missing their grandchildren and their children at home as it were.Article content“Later on, one of my sons — who at the time was in the Air Force in central Ontario — would get a five-day pass and just jump on the bus with them for those four or five days. Not many people get to say that.”Article contentThough he joined the group early, his role as a mine manager meant he needed time away from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, when he resumed his spot in the miners’ choir.Article content “Big Jim” MacLellan is shown at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay in late November 2025 after his final performance with the Men of the Deeps. “He had so much respect for his fellow miner. And because he had that outward respect, he commanded it from others,” New Waterford singer-songwriter Jenn Sheppard said of MacLellan. Photo by IAN NATHANSON/CAPE BRETON POST FILEArticle content‘COUNTLESS HOURS’ OF MEMORIESArticle contentAs Big Jim himself told the Post in 2025, “All my life in the choir, I held positions of importance and command. I was a disciplinarian for 18 years— (that was) 18 years being the cop looking after the Men of the Deeps.”Article contentArticle contentThat respect went both ways, Sheppard said: “He had so much respect for his fellow miner. And because he had that outward respect, he commanded it from others.”Article contentFor Muise, the loss of MacLellan also takes on a more personal meaning. Long before taking over the musical director role from John (Jack) O’Donnell in 2017, Muise remembers MacLellan and his father, the late Yogi Muise, regaling in mining stories galore — not only as Men of the Deeps members but also as one-time roommates.Article content“The post-show gathering or debrief, as you will, would often be in their rooms,” Stephen Muise said. “I remember being up till two and three in the morning with Big Jim and with my dad, and (both of them) telling these mining stories. Half of them were probably lies, but half of them were truths.Article content“Either way, to be able to spend those countless hours with Big Jim, those memories are going to be imprinted in my mind forever.”Article content———————————————————————————————————Article contentWHAT THEY SAIDArticle contentA number of online tributes to the late Jim MacLellan, the last founding member of the Men of the Deeps, who died on Friday at age 92:Article contentArticle content• “A complete gentleman and someone I was, honestly, in awe of every time I was in his presence. He was unrivaled as a storyteller and I was fortunate to share the stage with him on many occasions.” — Ciarán MacGillivray, multi-instrumentalist and performerArticle content• “His contributions went far beyond music. He helped preserve the history of our mining communities and ensured that the voices of the men who worked underground, and the families who supported them, would never be forgotten.” — Sydney-Glace Bay MP Mike Kelloway.Article content• “For nearly 60 years … he helped share Cape Breton’s proud coal mining history both here at home and around the world. My sincere condolences to his family, friends and members of the Men of the Deeps. He will be missed.” — Nova Scotia Premier Tim HoustonArticle content
Jim MacLellan, the Men of the Deeps’ last founding member, dead at 92
