Jacquelyn Frances Campbell

Jacquelyn Frances (Perris) Campbell

December 3, 1926 – January 2, 2015

As told by her daughter

Michelle (Chellie) Hamecs

My mother entered the world on December 3, 1926, as Jacquelyn Frances Schneider, born to her parents Beatrice and Edward. In 1932, her father moved the family to Alcatraz Island where he was the lighthouse keeper until his retirement in 1959. Mother had many fabulous stories of growing up on Alcatraz: Al Capone was her shoe repairman, studying by candle light during the air raid drills in World War II, sleeping through prison breaks and the time she broke her arm roller skating and she was the first female admitted into the prison infirmary. Years later, her family home was burned down by Jane Fonda and the American Indian Movement when they mistook her home for the prison. She never forgave them for this.

Mother “escaped” Alcatraz in 1944 to attend UCLA where she was a member of the Phi Mu Sorority and earned her BA in theatre and psychology in 1949. She told of many exploits while in college, including double dating with Rock Hudson and Vera Ellen. After graduation, she joined Footlights Theatre in San Diego where she performed in musical comedies under the stage name Jacqui Wynsor (it was serendipity that she ultimately married a man from Windsor, VT). While she had many good reviews, her theatric career was hurt by her resemblance to Bettie Davis (although Mother was much more attractive with her red hair and penetrating green eyes, not Bettie Davis eyes).

She married Robert Perris in 1951 and had two children, Robert and Michelle (Chellie). At this time she gave up her acting career and began working at Pacific Telephone and Telegraph. The marriage did not last and they divorced in 1956. In 1959, while visiting her cousin in Denver, Colorado, she met the love of her life, David M. Campbell (the man from Windsor, VT). They married on June 27, 1959 and she moved to Denver with her two children and her mother. She also became step-mother to Dave’s two children, Paul and Lynn.

Mother had a very full life in Colorado. She continued to work for the telephone company, transferring to Mountain Bell, where she worked her way up the management chain to oversee all of the Phone Center Stores in Colorado. However, her life was much more than working at the phone company. On weekends she and Dave would escape to build their mountain paradise in the “suburbs” of Como, Colorado. It took them from 1969 to 1993, but they finally completed their cabin, dubbed JADA, which is more like a large home. During this time, the family also expanded with seven grandchildren. Sadly, Dave passed away in 1993 shortly after they had completed most of the work on the “cabin”.

Mother did not let widowhood slow her down. She became very active in her church, St. Michael’s and All Angels, where she was a member of the St. Margaret’s Guild and helped to coordinate the annual rummage sale. She also visited me quite often in Washington, DC where she loved going to the Smithsonian museums and Williamsburg, VA. In typical Ma fashion, she once crashed Paul McCartney’s private tour of the Corcoran Museum when she didn’t get the word to vacate the exhibit before he entered. Later when I mentioned that he was in the museum the same time as her, she said “oh that man was Paul McCartney … I thought he looked a lot like him!”

Unfortunately, her trips to DC ended after her 85th birthday in 2011 with the onset of dementia. She spent her final year at Sunrise at Orchard where she made many wonderful friends.

On January 2, 2015, mother succumbed to influenza and pneumonia. She is survived by her children, Paul, Robert, Lynn and Chellie; seven grandchildren, David, Michael, Alan, Jessica, Patricia, Katie and Alec; and seven great grandchildren, Tyler, Evan, Isaac, Logan, Darby, Ethan and Paxton.

She had an incredible life and was an incredible mother/grandmother and great-grandmother. She will live in our hearts forever.