Tommy Lowell Campbell was born in 1931 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. While still a young man, he added his lovely, clear tenor voice to a local presentation of Handel's “Messiah.” After consuming mass quantities of bananas to meet minimal weight requirements, he enlisted in the US Air Force during the Korean Conflict. After his honorable discharge, he attended the Church of Christ at 10th & Rockford in Tulsa, where Jean Hames first laid eyes on him. “He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen,” Jean later recalled. They started dating and were married in 1956.
Tommy and Jean moved to Dallas, where their two daughters were born: Cheryl in 1958, and Cathy in 1960. In 1965, they moved to Phoenix. Tommy was treasured by his family for his love of music and film, his spontaneity, and his fun-loving nature. The Campbell home was always filled with an eclectic variety of music – sweeping orchestral film scores, classical pieces, Spike Jones, Herb Alpert, Johnny Cash, John Denver. . . His knowledge of classic cinema was extensive, and he nurtured a love for film in his daughters. Tommy frequently surprised his family with ideas for impromptu day trips up north (a welcome respite from the summer heat), where he hiked and climbed trees with the kids; or drive-in movies, or Ice Capades. In later years he amazed Jean with a fabulous, meticulously planned trip to Kauai. Tommy had a habit of bestowing spontaneous gifts on family members and others. He regularly presented widows at church with flowers at Easter, and poinsettias and cookies at Christmas, and collected blankets for the homeless during the winter.
Even after a stroke damaged much of his mind in 2000, Tommy remained sweet and loving, and even continued writing beautiful love letters to Jean for several years. While in home hospice in 2020, he frequently complimented family members on their appearance, and one of the last full sentences he actually spoke was about Jean: “Look at her! Isn't she precious?” – to which Jean replied, “Oh, Tom! I haven't even brushed my hair!”
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18