Francine Cee Kampen

Francine Cee Kampen (née Kerby), 76, of Jefferson City, Missouri, passed away on January 5, 2026.

Born April 11, 1949, in Neosho, Missouri, Francine was the daughter of Lincoln "Abe" Kerby and Nancy (Chestnut) Kerby. She grew up on a dairy farm, where her love of animals began early. As a girl, she had a pet cow she rode. When that cow fell into a ditch and was badly injured, Francine's father prepared to mercy kill it. She begged him not to. Instead, she nursed the animal back to health herself, changing its dressings day after day. The cow survived and earned its name: Miracle.

That was Francine. She believed things could be saved, and she did the work to save them.

She became a teacher of English and Spanish-first at the Education Center at Fort Leonard Wood, then at Cole R-5 in Eugene, Missouri, where she taught for over thirty years. In the classroom, she was colorful, funny, and enthusiastic in the way the best language teachers are. Former students approached her for years after graduation, still wanting her to know she had mattered.

At Fort Leonard Wood, Francine met Les Kampen. They married July 23, 1977, in a country church outside Glenwood, Missouri-about a mile from where her grandparents had lived. The church had been closed, but women from the area cleaned it up so they could wed there. Les often said that while he finished college before they met, his real education began when he married Francine.

Theirs was a partnership of crooked rows and straight lines. Francine gardened with abandon-tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, big okra, flowers everywhere. Her gardens ran wild, and she loved them that way. "You can get more plants in a crooked row than a straight row," she would say. Les built tall cages to keep her tomatoes from blowing over. He would have preferred straight rows. They made it work for nearly forty-nine years.

She was happiest in that garden or in her kitchen, baking the world's best chocolate chip cookies for everyone-because Francine paid attention to what people loved, and then did something about it. She was a wonderful wife, a mother who made up bedtime stories for her daughter Letty, and a woman whose home was full of beloved pets: Gretchen the basset-beagle who watched over baby Letty, chihuahuas Bucho and Angel, and Sombra, the cat who acted like a dog.

Francine found joy and couldn't be fenced in. She truly lived her faith and was a member of Russellville Baptist Church.

She was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her husband Les Kampen of Jefferson City; daughter Letticia Dawn Brown and son-in-law Keith Brown; and brother Andrew Kerby and wife Fran.

Visitation will be 10-10:30 a.m. Saturday, January 31, 2026, at Trimble Funeral Homes – Jefferson City. A memorial service will follow at 10:30 a.m. with Rev. John Kerr officiating.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Alzheimer's Association or the Jefferson City Animal Shelter.

Services entrusted to Trimble Funeral Homes – Jefferson City. trimblefunerals.com