Ova Campbell

On August 17, 2025, Ova Campbell passed quietly into eternal sleep. In his final weeks he received visits from his wife, Jeannie Campbell, and his children, Anita, Alesia, and Tim Campbell daily. He had always taken care of personal matters privately; and so, his body seemed to wait until his last breath could also be taken in solitude, leaving the earth to return to the heavens after the last visitor had left.

Ova Campbell was born on November 16, 1938, in Engle Kentucky to parents Pearolee and Wayne Campbell. He died on August 17, 2025. He was preceded in death by his parents, Pearolee and Wayne Campbell, brothers, Gabe, Austin, Wayne Jr., and Earnest Campbell, a sister Wanda Stanton, and granddaughter Cassandra Beall. He is survived by his wife, Geneva (Jeannie) Campbell of 64 years, daughters, Anita and Alesia (Patrick) Campbell, son, Tim (Vicki) Campbell, grandchildren, Kyle (Jessica) and Zachary Hollinger, Caleb, Colin and Carly Campbell, great grandchildren, Piper and Emerson Hollinger, brothers J.D. (linda) and Curtis (Maria) Campbell, and sisters Doris (Paul) Wegner and Josephine (Don) Kemper.

Ova was born on November 16, 1938, in a humble cabin near a stream in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky. The second of ten children, he spent his early years on the family homestead before living as a child for a time at the Blue Diamond Mine camp. Almost as soon as he could walk, he began helping with the daily tasks that would keep the family fed in the rugged close-knit community in which he lived. His strong sense of family responsibility soon became a list of skills which would be the envy of would be homesteaders today.

By the age of eight he could snap a chicken’s neck so efficiently that it barely had a chance to struggle, pluck it and fry it to make lunch for his siblings. At the age of sixteen, he cut trees, stripped the bark, hauled them down the mountain and did the prep work for a barn raising with only the help of another teen who went by the name of Pig and the family mules. When he was around twelve, he and a cousin over-estimated their knowledge and placed the charges incorrectly when blasting coal for the family’s stove. Instead of chunks, they ended up covered with coal dust. When Grandpa John arrived, he simply looked them over and told them that since they were lucky enough to survive, they could get to the general store and buy some more dynamite themselves. Fortunately, the store owner took one look at their sad coal covered faces and gave them each a stick of dynamite. He loved telling the story of how right after they got their first truck when he was in high school, his dad drove it into the side of the general store. For some reason the truck didn’t stop when Wayne pulled back on the steering wheel and shouted whoa. Ova had the mind of an engineer and could create tools to solve a multitude of problems just by looking at the situation. Whether it was a simple door slide or getting water under a French drain to help the soil collapse faster, he seemed to see a way to make the most complex task simple.

He attended several different one room school houses, and because of life circumstances had to repeat two grade levels in school. Once he repeated because his sister, Doris, had been badly burned so he stayed home to help take care of things, and the other because he was the only student in his grade and the new teacher said he wouldn’t do lessons for one child. His determination saw him through when, even with these setbacks, he was the first person in his family to graduate from high school in 1958.

Immediately after graduation he headed to Ohio to seek better employment opportunities, although he didn’t luck immediately into one of those good union factory jobs. He began building his resume at a car wash on Salem Avenue. He then worked at the Hasty Tasty commissary for a while before landing the job that would change his future as a short-order breakfast chef at the Parkmore Restaurant on Shroyer Road.

For his wife, Jeannie Campbell, the memory of their meeting has not faded in all these years…

"I had finished my freshman year at Manchester College and was looking for a summer job. I had visited many places but had found no openings. I was driving home when I remembered there was a Parkmoor on Shroyer Rd. I was tired and went several blocks past Shroyer, but something told me to go back so I turned around. At Parkmoor not only did I get a job as a car hop, but met the love of my life. Ova Campbell was the breakfast cook. He had the most beautiful blue eyes. I always loved blue eyes. I came home and told my sister Polly I had just met the man I was going to marry. Of course he did not give me the time of day. A couple of weeks later, I got off at two and knew he was getting off at three. At Parkmoor the girl's changing room was on the first floor and the men’s was upstairs. I waited patiently for Ova to descend. We had to park our cars across the street. So we walked across the street together and I said, “how about taking me for a ride?” He said OK. We left and went past my house to the Little Miami River. At college I was allowed to stay out until 1:00. At home the curfew was 11:00. We sat on the bank until about 12:30 and then went back to get my dad’s station wagon. I got home at 1:00. Meanwhile, my parents were frantic. They called Parkmoor, I wasn’t there. I finally went home at 1:00 to parents that were not happy. The rest is history. I went back to college for six months and quit and married the love of my life."

Ova Campbell and Geneva Sterne were married on April 1, 1961, a marriage that would last sixty-four years, four months, and 16 days. Over the years they would welcome three children, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

He centered his life around family. He worked hard to support them, yet turned down “promotions” to foreman that would require he sacrifice family for career. His heart always and forever centered around his love, Jeannie. He somehow managed to love all his children and grandchildren differently yet equally at the same time. If they had developed an interest he hadn’t shared previously, he showed up to every game or performance and learned to appreciate new things. He went to horse shows, dance competitions, choir performances, soccer tournaments, lacrosse, and wrestling matches. Yet these were not the activities that defined relationships, or the memories of a man who changed his little corner, through the simple everyday things.

His legacy is the life of an ordinary, yet extraordinary man, and the living memories of:

His wife Jeannie: When Alesia was a baby she wouldn’t let anyone dress her but Ova, she was always daddy’s girl…about a week after we brought Tim home, Anita said we could throw him away now, because he stole her daddy…Ova was adamant that we not name a son Timothy because he had a dog named Tim. After a long painful delivery where I dug scratches into his arms, ending in an emergency C section, Ova came into my room and said, “his name is Timothy”.

His Children:

Tim: My fondest memories of my dad are playing one on one basketball. I still remember the day I first felt I truly won — I was in high school and he was approaching 50… “hunting” at my grandparents' house where he taught me how to identify trees (one of my life interests still today)…teaching me how to do home improvements (electricity, plumbing, woodworking, etc), he tried to teach me how to work on cars, but that didn’t take (although I did learn some new vocabulary, and maybe most importantly how to deal with life when it was not going as planned.).

(daughter-in-law) Vicki: When I was so sick during my pregnancies for Caleb and Colin, Ova brought me a steady stream of “Papa apple pies” which was one of the only things I could tolerate eating.

Alesia: Daddy buying the little white-faced heifer at the auction because I cried…no one wanted her. I can still see the look on his face when he made the bid, rolling his eyes and shaking his head, but she came home with us.

Anita: My earliest memory of daddy is of him bringing back some squirrels he had shot with his Marlin .22 rifle in Kentucky, and how mom complained that they were terrible to eat. He cooked them and ate them anyway…When I was ten, dad gathered everyone in the car, picked up a rented trailer, and drove us to a farm that seemed hours away. When we all got out of the car, the farmer’s led out what seemed to me to be the most beautiful horse in the world. His name was Cherokee; he came home with us and began a lifelong passion for riding which was passed on to his granddaughter Cassi…in middle school he again told me to get in the car and drove to a pawn shop. Once there he asked for a guitar he had on hold, handed it to me and asked me to put my fingers on the fretboard, it was the perfect size. I spent many nights secretly pouring my teen angst into that guitar when I was meant to be in bed.

His Grandchildren:

Carly: Our mutual love of Chocolate covered cherries and teaching me how to catch catfish.

Colin: Picking me up from elementary school with a chocolate shake to go play basketball at church.

Caleb: Papa was engaged in our lives, from watching our soccer, basketball, lacrosse, show choir, marching band, softball, and taking us water skiing, camping, playing board games, etc. Making s’mores and watching movies late at night in the RV.

Zach: He always loved to take the grandkids boating, but me and him used to go tubing and fishing just the two of us.

Kyle: I can remember grandpa teaching me how to fish. It was some little creek, I don’t even know where, we stood on the shore just me and him and he took several hours showing me how. I will never forget that cause it was a way he taught me to be in touch with nature.

Cassi wrote this note on a birthday card a couple of years before she passed. He had it in a frame with her picture on his wall: "Thank you for always being there, and for being a loving role model. From way back when you took me to McDonald’s and the narrows to sharing stories with Ryan now, you always have been and always will be someone we love and look up to. Love, Cassi and Ryan".

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Beavercreek Church of the Brethren or the Alzheimer's Association.

A Celebration of Life for Ova Campbell will be held on Saturday, September 13, 2025, at Beavercreek Church of the Brethren, 2659 Dayton-Xenia Rd. Beavercreek, OH 45434. There will be a time of visitation from 9:30am-11:00am with a service at 11:00am.Following the service will be a meal; everyone is welcome.