Bessie M. Campbell

Mrs. Bessie Mackey Campbell, wife of the late Mr. Paul Campbell, went to be with the Lord on July 22, 2020 at 10:40 am. She was with her family when she passed. Mrs Bessie was the mother of two, and the oldest of 5 siblings. She was born on August 17, 1931, to Alonzo and Annabel Mackey. She is survived by one daughter (Paula Campbell Grett), two sisters (Hazel Mackey McClure and Ann Mackey) and one grandson (Nathan Eugene McDonald). Bessie is a published poet and a member of the International Poets Society. She has had book showings in several countries and dedicated one book to the Kuwaiti people and their struggle against oppression in the Gulf wars in the 1990's. Some of her books are available on Amazon under the pen name of Bessa McKaye. Mrs Bessie served in the US Army as a medical technician and was a veteran of the Korean War, a graduate of Temple University, and was a certified mortician. Bessie and her husband, Paul, owned funeral homes in Philadelphia, PA, and later in Fayetteville, NC, for several years. She also worked at the Womack Army hospital on Ft Bragg for 20 years, then worked overseas as an expatriate for nearly 30 years. Her last job was as a bone density specialist in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where she was an advocate for the recognition of calcium deficiency in women. After her return from Saudi Arabia in 2005, she became a volunteer at the local Veteran's Administration Hospital in West Palm Beach, FL where she assisted in numerous roles, including starting a writing club in the VA hospital. Most of the people who she knew at the local VA hospital remember her "holding court" inn the canteen on Tuesdays and Thursdays, where she would be surrounded by several people, or racing up and down the halls on her red electric scooter. She was an active member of Christ Fellowship church in Royal Palm Beach, FL, where she also volunteered with the shadow (special needs) ministry.