Campbell had a gravelly “unique voice” which drew listeners to her show, according to Bob Long of Hamilton, a former WMUB news director who worked with Campbell from 1983 to 1998.
“While she had a tremendous knowledge of jazz, what made her successful was her love for her listeners,” Long said. “Even if they had never met her, she made them feel like they were part of her family.”
Campbell also worked in other capacities at the university from 1967 until she retired in 1994, first in the personnel and guidance department and later as secretary to the dean of the graduate school, the university said.
During the years that she held office and on-air jobs, she put in 60-hour weeks.
Her Mama Jazz show got its start in 1979 as a 2-hour format, becoming so popular that it eventually became a 4-hour, 5-days-a-week show.
“She was feisty as all get-out, passionately devoted to jazz and unabashedly loyal to her legions of fans,” said former WMUB general manager Cleve Callison. “I can’t think of anyone I’ve met in radio who has seen that kind of devotion doubled back so much as the lady simply known everywhere as Mama.”
Campbell, who was born in 1922 in Eaton, traveled by train to Cleveland and Chicago in the early 1940s to see big band performances by Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton and other jazz legends, according to her daughter, Gail Campbell of Oxford.
“Mama Jazz” got her start in radio after WMUB’s Lee Hay asked her to speak at a fund-raiser about all the musicians she had met and talk about her love of music, Gail Campbell said.
“Mom was such a good talker, they let her do (the show),” she said. “She had a gift for getting people excited about jazz.”
In 1993, the George H. Buck Jazz Foundation in New Orleans honored Campbell for preserving the music of New Orleans jazz musician George Lewis by locating lost masters and having them digitally transferred to compact discs, according to the university.
Services will be private, according to family. A public celebration of life service will be held at a later date.
About the Author
