Judith (Hames) Campbell, 69, of Saratoga and Salome, Ariz., died in hospice care in Denver, on March 28, 2013, after an 18-month battle with Mantle Cell Lymphoma. She will be remembered as an energetic and endlessly patient wife, mother and grandmother who leaves three granddaughters, ages 2, 5 and 12.
When she was 23 years old, in 1967, she took care of three of her Air Force husband’s four children, ages 5 to 13, as he flew back and forth to Vietnam.
Judy is survived by her husband of 46 years, Curtis Campbell of Saratoga, children Beth (Jeremy Lockwood) Campbell of Sacramento, Calif.; and Sam (Anna Senecal) Campbell of Green River, her step-children, Paty Marshall-Stace of Cobden, Victoria, Australia; Joe (Beverly) Campbell of Cheyenne; Song Kowbell of Penn Valley, Calif.; and John Campbell of Rough and Ready, Calif.
She is also survived by three grandchildren, Sadie Campbell, Penelope Lockwood and Beatrix Lockwood, and many step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Her six siblings survive her: Vera (Bob) Tharp of Rathdrum, Idaho; Harlen Hames (Betty) of Sunnyside, Wash.; Alan (Helen) Hames of Milwaukee, Ore.; George Hames of Englewood, Colo.; Ruth (Byrl) Skovgaard of Billings, Mont.; and Robin (Rick) Maurer of Priest River, Idaho.
When Judy needed a bone marrow transplant, all of her siblings were tested and her youngest sister Robin was her donor. All six of her brothers and sisters visited Judy more than once during her Cheyenne/Denver treatment from May 2012 to March 2013.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Fred and Idabess Hames and a grandson, Hector Alexander Lockwood.
If asked, Judy would say that the three most recent good memories would have to be the birth of a granddaughter, Beatrix, nearly two years ago to her attorney daughter who had a stillborn birth of a son just a year earlier. Her other two proudes moments would be equal in her eyes. Judy and her husband Curtis were present when their daughter, Elizabeth Campbell, argued a case before the United States Supreme Court on April 23, 2007 which she won nine to nothing. Her son Sam came to Wyoming, rode bulls in college and worked as a truck driver and heavy equipment operator for a private firm and for over a decade for Albany County before returning to school. He is now an operating room registered nurse in Rock Springs. Judy was glad when his bull riding career ended. Sam was her primary caregiver during much of her 16 days in hospice in their leased Denver apartment where she died.
Judy was a tireless hiker climbing the highest peaks near her Wyoming and Arizona homes. She hiked every trail in the Snowy Range from 2004 through 2011. She and Curtis climbed Medicine Bow Peak six years in a row and made the final climb in 2011 after her diagnosis. She was a brave lady who met every challenge and everyone she met with a broad smile that lit up the room. No one ever forgot meeting her.
Judy was born in Billings, on Nov. 1, 1943. She graduated from high school in Worland in 1961. She attended Anderson College in Anderson, Ind., for three years, took classes at California State University in Sacramento and received a degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco in 1995, at the age of 52.
Judy retired as the Business Director of the Placer County Office of Education in Auburn, Calif. She served 13 years as a trustee on the board of the Western Placer Unified School District. She and the rest of the family were active in Lincoln Little League for many years in the 1980s and early 1990s.
She lived in Lincoln, Calif., for 27 years before retiring to Wyoming and Arizona. During the early years, which she referred to as her “Little House on the Prairie” years, she raised cattle, pigs, a huge garden and kids. In her spare time she typed transcripts for local courts. She was a member of a group of rural Lincoln Ladies known only as The Birthday Club. Judy was always busy.
A memorial service will be scheduled in Lincoln, in the Fall of 2013.
Donations may be made in her honor to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Condolences can be sent to Curtis Campbell at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)