Homestead Center for the Arts will present “An Hour with Ruth Campbell” as its first 2011 presentation in the Bea Peskoe Lunchtime Lecture Series, at noon Monday, Jan. 3, in the new auditorium at the Homestead Community Center, 1601 N. Krome Ave. (across from 1st National Bank of South Florida’s Main Office).
Ruth Campbell is the executive director of the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum. She has been an observer of everything Homestead since she arrived from Michigan in 1942 with her Aunt Ruth Zinck for a visit with her other aunts, Veona Schnorbus and Grace Baird.
Ruth never left. She went to work at the Homestead Grocery, but within a year her girlfriends convinced her to come work with them at Homestead Army Air Field. Ruth met her husband to be Harold “Pete” Campbell at Dick’s Drive-Inn while he was home on leave from the Army. They married in 1947 after he was discharged.
Ruth shares that some of her early decisions dramatically affected her life here. She joined the First Baptist Church of Homestead where she still teaches Sunday School and Bible studies. In 1947 she joined the Woman’s Club of Homestead. She joined the Chamber of Commerce soon after opening Ruth’s Beauty Studio and her business soared. This is her simple formula for success.
She and her family moved into the “Campbell House” built by Pete’s parents in northeast Homestead in 1961. In 1963 she ran for city council and won and was re-elected in 1965. In 1967 she was elected vice mayor and became the president of the Chamber of Commerce.
Campbell formed the Military Affairs Committee which still is an important organization with much the same mission. She took four years off from the city council to serve on the State of Florida Board of Cosmetology. She then returned and served until 1997, 24 years total. She was defeated only once.
Few are those who have seen Homestead so up close. Come and enjoy an hour with the inimitable Ruth Campbell and see the new audit rium.
An optional simple lunch is available beginning at 11:30 a.m. for $10 payable at the door. Lunch reservations are essential and can be made by calling Barbara Millenbruch at 305-230-9185 by noon Dec. 31. Lots of parking is available.
