Active center member missed
For many, Bea Campbell was an integral part of the Touchstone Center for the Arts in Farmington. “I have the greatest respect and fondness for Bea, and Touchstone has lost a great treasure,’ said Agnes Kinard, a founding member of Touchstone and an emeritus member of the board of directors.
“She loved Touchstone,’ said Jim Campbell of his wife. “…She liked the arts and crafts and loved people so it was a great combination.’
“If we visited in the evening, she would tell us how her day went at the gift shop – all the people she met and the artists,’ said longtime friend Martha Kempic of Uniontown. “I think she liked it because of the people – the artists, the public and the distance they came. And she was always encouraging people to take classes and be a part of Touchstone.’
Beatrice Walker Lilley Campbell of Uniontown died Tuesday at her home from cancer. She was 88.
“She was very brave,’ said Jim Campbell. “When people asked, ‘How are you?’ She’d say, ‘I’m fine.’ She never complained.’
Since 1982, Bea and Jim Campbell have been members and volunteers at Touchstone, Pennsylvania’s only residential crafts school, which has been promoting the arts since its founding as the Pioneer Crafts Council in 1972. Touchstone attracts artists and students from around the country. Those who made their way to the mountain center usually met the Campbells.
The couple, who married in 1963, volunteered at Touchstone through the years in a variety of ways but Jim Campbell has primarily managed the blacksmithing studio, while Bea Campbell established and managed the Touchstone gift shop.
“She started the gift shop from a small room. Every year it moved to a different location and became bigger,’ Jim Campbell said, noting the gift shop eventually became established in what is now called the Blaney Lodge. A plaque hangs there saying, “The Gallery Store is dedicated to Bea Campbell.’
She was born on Feb. 7, 1920, in New York City, a daughter of the late Joseph Waldman Walker and Helen Huda Waldman Walker. She became a resident of Pennsylvania in 1926 and lived in Uniontown since 1951.
Campbell graduated from Georges Township High School and attended Waynesburg Center for courses in social studies. Her work career included 14 years as medical secretary to well-known pediatrician Dr. John D. Sturgeon Jr. of Uniontown until his retirement in 1975.
Kempic talked about Campbell’s strong work ethic, noting, “If she thought a job was worth doing, she did it well. I think if Dr. Sturgeon hadn’t retired, she would have kept going.’
Instead, she began volunteering.
She was involved with the Uniontown Art Club, served as a hospice volunteer for seven years and spent 12 years as a Reach to Recovery volunteer for the American Cancer Society and in the Baby Talk program at the Uniontown Hospital.
And she volunteered at Touchstone where her work for the Gallery Store earned her the VITA-2007 Award given by Dominion Energy Co. of Pittsburgh.
It was coordinated by WQED, the Pittsburgh public television and radio station.
The Uniontown Business and Professional Women also named her Woman of the Year in 1999.
Campbell also was an artist in her own right. Kempic noted they both took classes with Uniontown artist Sybilla Spurgeon. Campbell also took classes in a variety of media at Touchstone.
Her friends and family talked about her talents in the arts and in her home.
“She won awards for clothing design. She was a superb seamstress,’ said her son Monty Lilley of Menallen Township. “She liked to make clothing, but not for sale. …There is artwork in my house of her block printing and drawings. She was also a weaver. She had so many talents.’
One year on a lark, Lilley said, Campbell made redbirds that could hang on a Christmas tree and placed them for sale in a restaurant in Grantsville, Md. Lilley said a group from the Maryland governor’s office saw them and they wound up that year on the governor’s Christmas tree. When a delegation from Japan saw them, the redbirds found their way to Tokyo.
Jim Campbell noted how his wife made many of her dresses as well as shirts, trousers and sports coats for him. She made stuffed teddy bears that she gave as gifts and that were used in fundraising for charity.
The men talked about how much Bea Campbell loved nature and hikes in the outdoors. She loved to garden and can vegetables. She enjoyed baking and there was always homemade bread, rolls, pie, cakes and cookies in her home. She was a diligent housekeeper and kept “everything in its place and spic and span,’ said Jim Campbell.
They also talked about her love of language. She studied Russian, knew some Latin and French. She enjoyed words, often looking them up to find their meaning, origin and how to use them. And she wrote poetry, often sending poems to family and friends.
More than anything, people liked Bea Campbell because of who she was.
“She was very special. She was earthy and quirky, witty, practical and direct,’ said Kinard. “She never wasted words or time. She and Jim were partners in their devotion to Touchstone. She enlivened everything. …We will all miss her greatly. She was an inspiration to everyone.’
Campbell’s niece Regina Braddee of Menallen Township, said, “She’s just been a wonderful inspiration – somebody who was always there for you. She was more than a relative. She was a sincere friend and someone you could count on. …She was very bright and witty. She was a very caring person and sincere. She will be deeply missed.’
Kempic said Campbell was an excellent friend.
“She was always there to offer support if she felt she could be,’ Kempic said.
Many called her a great storyteller.
“Marie Pusateri and Bea and I would go to Maine quite often and she would entertain us with her stories,’ said Kempic.
Kempic noted that Campbell was very outgoing.
“She would approach anyone she wanted to meet to find out more about them,’ Kempic said.
And both Campbell’s husband and son speak with love for her.
“She was a great mother, a great wife and a great grandmother,’ said Jim Campbell. “She had concern for other people and she had a list of people she called daily to listen to their problems and give advice. She had a good sense of humor they enjoyed.’
“She was certainly a mother beyond compare,’ said Lilley. “Every life she touched came away better. It didn’t matter if you were a bank president, a chief executive officer of a corporation or the guy cutting her grass. She spent her whole life caring for others, not just her family.’
Lilley noted he must have had 35 calls from people about his mother since his death – people he didn’t know but whom his mother touched in a special way.
And although her health failed in recent years, Bea Campbell was happy.
“I think she met in life every dream she had,’ said Lilley. “She was not seeking wealth or fame or celebrity. She was just a real, real person.’
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Thomas M. Dolfi Funeral Home in Uniontown.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations may be made in Bea Campbell’s memory to Touchstone Center for Crafts and the Uniontown Public Library or that she be remembered by planting a tree.