Bebe-Campbell-Obituary

Bebe Moore Campbell

Obituary

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bebe Moore Campbell, whose many best sellers such as "Brothers and Sisters" touched on America's ethnic and social divides, died Monday. She was 56.

Campbell died at home in Los Angeles from complications due to brain cancer, said publicist Linda Wharton Boyd. She was diagnosed with the disease in February.

"My wife was a phenomenal woman who did it her way," husband Ellis Gordon Jr. said in a statement. "She loved her family and her career as a writer.

Her books, largely fiction and based on real-life stories, included the perspective of many ethnic groups.

One of her first novels, "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine," was published in 1992 and spanned a 40-year period. It dealt with prejudice in the United States. The book earned her an NAACP Image Award for literature. She followed the book with "Brothers and Sisters," which focused on race relations in the corporate world after the 1992 Los Angeles riot.

Among her other novels were "Singing in the Comeback Choir," "What You Owe Me" and "72 Hour Hold," the latter dealing with a mother coping with her daughter's bipolar disorder. Her 2003 play, "Even With the Madness," also focused on mental illness.

She also wrote children's books, including "Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry" in 2003, which won the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Outstanding Literature Award. Another children's book, "I'm So Hungry," will be released next year.

As a journalist, her articles appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Essence and Ebony.

Campbell, whose full name was Elizabeth Bebe Moore Campbell Gordon, was born in February 1950 in Philadelphia. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971.

Campbell is survived by her husband; a son, Ellis Gordon III; a daughter, Maia Campbell; her mother, Doris Moore; and two grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were pending.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press


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All these years later,, I think I singed the Book at the service. I can you some of the Best Charades Games ever during the Holidays in my house. Nothing was off limits, so much laughter filled my Dining room, family & dearest friends. Dancing at her wedding had nod clue as a white girl no they all joined in to teach me,, Think is was The Chicken Dance. More than God could know what a treasure this woman was and the utmost pleasure that she was a part of y life,,, and Ellis Of course, Loved...

BeBe Moore Campbell, you are missed. Thank you for your written contributions Brothers & Sisters, 72 Hour Hold and all the rest.

Thank you for writing books that reflected us.

I remember reading my first book ever and it was hers. I have'nt stopped reading since. I wish I could've thanked her for the great books she wrote and I read. Your blues aint like mine. was awesome. R.I.P

To Bebe's husband, children, and family as a whole. I had just finished reading Your Blues...... when unexpectedly at my church, Antioch Baptist, in Cleveland Ohio, she was introduced as a guest. What a privilege and honor to meet an author who had brought me to tears in reading this book about injustice. I loved her style in writing which kept me eager to read until the end. Unfortunately, I had no knowledge until today that she'd passed. (I was looking for a good book to read). What a...

Bebe Moore Campbell was truly an amazing person with so much talent the loss is clearly ours. Prayers fill our hearts and burst forth from our mouths to God asking him to let us remember clearly the love we have for this wonderful person gone from our lives never forgetting the joy we shared experiencing a great and authentic talent. Hebrews 6:10.

My god bless you