Events

Mary and Warren Campbell

November 10, 2009

Greetings to our Astraea Friends:

While we cannot be with you tonight, we will be joining your celebration in our minds and in our conversations here in California as you again acknowledge the astounding achievements of our now middle-aged Astraea organization.

Take a moment to reflect on how Astraea began three decades ago in the minds of a small group of friends and colleagues who showed the courage and the determination to organize and fight for full participation and acceptance for women everywhere. And so Astraea was born.

Without that outrageously bold beginning, you would not be gathered here tonight. And thousands of women in America and elsewhere would be without the powerful support that they need for their personal pride and for their empowerment.

As the parents of one of those brash pioneers, Lynn Campbell, we marvel at what that small experiment has become. Lynn and the others were “happy warriors” in the never-ending battle for equality and recognition. They dreamed—and they acted on their dream. As Lynn’s parents and family, we are deeply grateful that even now, twenty-five years after her death, Astraea still remembers her with this annual memorial testimonial.

Lynn worked for justice for farm workers, for domestic workers, for women in general, and for lesbians. In spite of her brave struggle to overcome melanoma, she succumbed at age twenty-eight. She would be proud beyond description at what Astraea has accomplished. In her stead, we as her parents and sisters share the pride in your growth and in your contributions to a better and fairer world of acceptance and opportunity. Bless you all for your part in that effort.

In solidarity,

Mary and Warren Campbell

and sisters Jill and Alice

A Letter for the Lynn Campbell Memorial Fund Event

10 November 2009

by Cheri Pies

I am genuinely sorry I can’t be here tonight in person to be celebrating Astraea and raising money for the Lynn Campbell Memorial Fund And in some convoluted way, I know Lynn is sorry she can’t be here too – she loved a good fund-raising occasion.

So, since neither of us can be here with you tonight, I wanted to bring us to you, through my words and some memories of Lynn.

I can remember the first real date I had with Lynn Campbell. What I mean is that although I first met Lynn when she was a high school friend of my younger sister, sometime in 1975, it wasn’t until April 1983 that we had our first date. By sheer coincidence (and isn’t that how true love often happens?) our paths crossed when I was working as a consultant for the Funding Exchange. We remembered each other, vaguely it seemed, and made a plan to have lunch.

I met Lynn for lunch at the Brick Hut, a now-defunct but once famous and hopping breakfast and lunch spot owned and operated by lesbians in Oakland, California. Sitting there in that booth, eating my favorite Brick Hut lunch, and looking across the table at Lynn I remember thinking to myself – this is a remarkable woman.

She talked about her cancer that day. She had been diagnosed with melanoma 4 years earlier. She said, “you know that saying about living every day as though it was the first day of the rest of your life? It irks me. I’ve come to realize that it’s more important to live each day as though there were going to be a next day, and a day after that, and a day after that.” This simple statement struck me and I never forgot it. And I hoped that this amazing woman would see that I could be someone she wanted to spend those “next days” – and beyond – with.

Now, I want you to know that all those things that you can read in the program about Lynn are true. Most importantly, that she had a passion for justice, a commitment to making change happen, and a fervent desire to see that no woman should ever have to live in fear – no matter what. She was the ultimate organizer – even when she was sick in bed with cancer – she knew how to organize the crowd, and I still use some of her techniques in my own work today.

But beyond those sterling aspects of her character, you should know that she had a way of talking to you that made you feel you were the only person that mattered at that moment, a fabulous smile that would light up her face in such a way that you loved to make her laugh, and a twinkle in her eye that spoke volumes of what was on her mind. She was, for lack of a better word, special. Very, very special. Do I miss her? To this day. Did you miss out by not knowing her – you bet you did.

Before I close, I just want to tell you one quick story about Lynn. Lynn Campbell had a way of interpreting a situation so that you always came out the other side of it feeling that no matter how bad you started out feeling, you ended up feeling good. After the recurrence of her cancer in June 1983, she came to live with me in Oakland. I was in the midst of writing my book, Considering Parenthood: A Workbook for Lesbians. I would work each day for a few hours. One day, I was just discouraged, and a bit whiney. I couldn’t write, didn’t think anyone would read the book, and besides, there were already really good books on lesbian parenting that others had written. “Okay,” Lynn said in her time-for-a-pep-talk way, “let’s get in the car and go to Cody’s Books.” So, we bundled her up and headed up to Berkeley and walked into Cody’s. She took me to the section on the Vietnam War. “There,” she said, pointing to the 4 shelves of books displayed in front of us, “see all those books on the Vietnam War? Every one of these authors has a different point of view, they tell a different story. Your book will do that too, no matter how many books on lesbian parenting are written.” And of course, she was right.

She knew how to inspire, how to offer perspective, and how to deliver that much-needed pep talk in a way that made you think – Yes I Can!

Oh, and wouldn’t she be delighted to see Barack Obama in the office of President of the United States today. And, wouldn’t she be blown away to know that since she died, there have been three women in the office of Secretary of State. And you can bet that she would have been out there marching in the most recent lesbian and gay pride parade holding a banner proclaiming the rights of lesbians and gay men to marry.

She was someone you would have wanted to know. I know she would have wanted to be here tonight, mingling with all of you, laughing with you and Karen Williams, and hanging out with her old friends – Lucy Winer, Terry Lawler, Carol Alper, Katherine Acey, and others – and making new ones. Even as I write this letter to you from afar, I have that tingling feeling that she’s there – in spirit – and her ideals and dreams are now part of the hearts and minds of all of us.

Have a great evening and thank you for keeping the memory of Lynn alive through the Lynn Campbell Memorial Fund.