MIDDLESBORO — A long time ago, in a small school house in rural Kentucky, a young woman began a life-long crusade to make a difference in the lives of children.

The little school, heated only by the fire of coal-burning stoves, packed eight grades of students into four modest rooms. There was no running water, no indoor restroom facilities, and no food available for the students.

This is the scene that greeted Edna Beatrice (Bebe Turner) Campbell when she made her teaching debut at the long-departed division of the Bell County School system called Union Grade School in 1960. Nearly fifty years later, the schools have changed, but her devotion to teaching continues.

Bebe Campbell spent her childhood in the mining camps of Benedict and the community of Woodway, Virginia. Her parents, Steve and Hazel Fuson Turner, insisted that she and sister Sandy (Conner) go to college, and at an early age, Bebe set her sights on teaching.

“I started out wanting to teach piano, when I was no more than four or five years old,” she remembers, even though she hadn’t yet begun to take lessons herself. She started playing for church when she was nine-years-old.

After graduation at Middlesboro High School, where the family had returned years before, she received her Bachelor’s Degree in education from Eastern Kentucky University, and later earned her Master’s from Union College, plus 30 post-master’s degree credits, qualifying her as a rank I level educator. She was also selected as Teacher of the Year in Middlesboro twice.

As a teacher, Mrs. Campbell has always exceeded the standards of the schools and states that she taught in order to reach her students. The bond between she and her students was so deep that her family seemed to expand each year.

“I never felt like I was her only child,” explains daughter Danna Smith, “I’ve shared my Mom with generations of children. At a young age, I realized that what she had done was more important than any life skill I could ever get.”

Danna has now been teaching for 17 years. Former student Raydean Huddleston also became a teacher, and even earned her student teaching credits under Mrs. Campbell, the woman she says she modeled herself after as a teacher.

“She was so wonderful, she truly inspired you to do better,” explains Raydean, who is also the mother of past students of Mrs. Campbell’s and adds, “My kids still love her.”

That extra devotion that is so familiar to her many students, numbering thousands, devotion that started with the birth of her career in the four-room Union Grade School, also known as Garmeda School. Before the advent of social welfare and school lunch programs, several students endured the school day without a hot lunch, and Mrs. Campbell decided to do whatever she could to change that.

Her first project was to bring milk to school. Mrs. Campbell contacted superintendent Bill Slusher, who contacted Pet Dairy to supply milk to the school for 2 cents per student. To cover the cost of milk for children who couldn’t pay for it, she relied on the Middlesboro Junior Women’s Club, of which she happened to be the President.

“Our education committee of the Junior Woman’s Club needed a project, so we took on, as a project, to save pennies each month that would be used for the children, to pay for milk if needed,” said Mrs. Campbell. “These pennies soon added up!”

Next, she set her sights on getting lunch to the kids. Efforts of the other three teachers of the school, members of the club, and the community helped fulfill the goal. She and the other teachers began making a meat and vegetable soup on the coal-burning stove, enough to feed each child and make a Health Unit of study out of it.

Teachers brought meat, pasta, and crackers from home, and students brought what they could from the family garden. Mrs. Campbell’s aunt Edna Fuson Patterson supplied anything else that was needed with donations from the grocery store she owned. At this time, Doug Campbell, Bebe’s husband, obtained bowls and spoons for the kids from Jimmy Ginsburg, a local business man.

Making lunch became part of a nutrition lesson, and each child participated. They studied the dietary value of each ingredient and washed the dishes afterward. Because each child contributed to the meal, all of them could proudly eat as much as they wanted.

Two years later, Mrs. Campbell was asked to transfer to the newly constructed Ward Chapel Elementary, though the idea of leaving Union Grade School initially disappointed her. Superintendent Bill Slusher appealed to her father to convince her to go. State standards required a music program be implemented at the consolidated school and she was the teacher who had the skills they needed at the time.

“My dad and mom had discussed this move with me and agreed to donate our piano to Ward Chapel. I had loved Union Grade School so much, but I felt I needed to go to Ward Chapel to do whatever I could there. I loved it as I taught 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, as well as music in grades 1- 8,” recalls Mrs. Campbell.

Of course, Mrs. Campbell loved the students at Ward Chapel too, as well as kids from the other schools where she taught. She spent a year and a half teaching in a progressive school in a Chicago suburb, then returned to Middlesboro, where she spent years at East End and West End Elementaries until retiring 13 year ago. She treasures memories of each school.

Retirement didn’t agree with the teacher, though, and she immediately returned to the workforce. Gateway Christian School has been her home now for more than a decade and she loves teaching more each day.

“I look forward to everyday here,” she says of Gateway, “I love it.”

In addition to teaching school, Mrs. Campbell also fulfilled her young dream of teaching piano. After more than 25 years, she continues to give evening piano lessons in her home. In addition, she has played piano or organ for East Cumberland Avenue Baptist Church since her membership there in 1956, save the time in Chicago, and taught Sunday school at the church for many years. She has also played piano for countless weddings and funerals.

She was also an early contributor to adult education, teaching GED classes in Bell County in the late 1960s for four or five years. She was appointed to serve on the committee to set the program up in Bell County for Adult Education.

“I’ve always tried to contribute what I could to the community,” says Mrs. Campbell.

And contribute she has, teaching for years beyond the time that most teachers spend in the classroom, and employing methods that went beyond academics.

Student Byron West remembers the special way she had of motivating him.

“She really cared and you knew that, even at age ten or 11,” West recalls. “She used to give me V8 juice and peanut-butter crackers at the end of each day — if I was good. Years later when I was playing football at Middlesboro High school, we were playing Corbin, and she sent me the same juice and crackers before the game.”

The end of this school year will wrap up 50 years of teaching for Bebe Campbell. As she continues with her career she reveals all that the years have meant to her:

I think back over the years with fond memories as I recall the many children, co-workers, staff members and families I have been blessed to know and work with. Friendships have been made that I will cherish for as long as I live. I think of my place at Gateway Christian School today as a way of sharing what God has blessed me with through the years and it is just what life is all about for me! I give thanks to Him and all who have helped me all through the years! It has been a most rewarding and interesting career that I continue to appreciate more each day!

Lorie Settles is a correspondent for the Middlesboro Daily News. Contact her via e-mail at correspondent@middlesborodailynews.com.