Minnie Leona Campbell

Minnie Leona (Betts) Campbell was born on 2-17-1914 on a vegetable farm near Harlan, KS, to John (Dell) Adelbert Betts and Mattie Bell Counsil. Most of the kids got their names from the models in the Sears catalog. In 1922 her Dad sold the prosperous farm and moved into Harlan where he bought a home, grocery store, roller skating rink and a gas station/garage. Her older siblings worked in the business while the younger ones went to school. When three “city boys” beat up “country kid” Minnie, her brother John taught her to box. Next time, Minnie gave as good as she got.

From 1926-1931, they were back on a prosperous farm. On 8-1-1931 she married Delbert T. Campbell. The first year they lived in a “doug out,” a dirt cave dug into the river bank with a door and one tiny window. Delbert drove the truck and worked on farms until he bought his own farm and house in 1932. From 1932-1937 the Dust Bowl hit hard. Everyone scattered hunting for work.

As a young wife, Minnie was making bread inks. She waited for the dough to rise and waited, and waited. Nothing happened. Knowing money was tight, she began to get nervous. What would Delbert think if she had wasted the ingredients? To hide the evidence, she buried the dough in the backyard. That afternoon Delbert came in from the fields. From the kitchen window, he saw a strange sight: chickens pulling long strings of dough from the ground. Warmed by the sun, the dough had risen. Mortified, she confessed her culinary lapse. Delbert just shook his head.

They would plant wheat and corn in the Spring and count on the rain to water them. Then their cousins and neighbors hit the road all summer and fall to find work in Colo., Ark., Neb., Idaho, and Wa. They picked peaches, pears, prunes, apples, lettuce, potatoes, onions etc. Men set up circus tents, mined coal, broke horses, drove truck, logged trees etc. Besides farm jobs, Minnie was a café waitress, cleaned homes, worked in a veg. cannery, and also canned chickens. Returning to KS every late fall, they usually found only dust and had to live the winter on their summer earnings.

In 1937, they sold the KS farm and moved in the Yakima Valley in WA to work in hops, fruit orchards and warehouses. Minnie worked at Hansen Fruit Warehouse from Oct. 1947 to March 2001 (53 1/2 years) Delbert Campbell died in 1933 at Union Gap, WA. Minnie moved to Clarkston, WA to live with her only child, Dolores (Campbell) Hoover. Minnie died on Oct. 13, 2016 in Clarkston, WA. She always had stories to tell and always had a laugh and smile.

There will be a funeral service on Monday, October 17, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. at Rainier Memorial Center. Concluding service and burial will be at Terrace Heights Memorial Park.

To share a memory of Minnie, please visit www.keithandkeith.com.