Campbell, Bebe Moore 1950-2006

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 18, 1950, in Philadelphia, PA; died of complications from brain cancer, November 27, 2006, in Los Angeles, CA. Author. Campbell was an acclaimed novelist whose fiction addressed such topics as racism, the effects of mental illness on a family, and the complicated relationships among people of different races. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, she worked as a teacher before marrying and having a child. Her first marriage ended in divorce, and she later remarried and settled in Los Angeles. Campbell's first works were nonfiction: Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage (1986; revised edition, 2000), and the memoir Sweet Summer: Growing Up with and without My Dad (1989). These were followed by the novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine (1992), which won an NAACP Image Award, and the highly acclaimed Brothers and Sisters (1994). The strained relations between blacks and whites in America is a common theme in a number of the author's works, as it is in Brothers and Sisters, which was written shortly after the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Another topic that interested Campbell was mental illness, and she alluded to family troubles in this regard in interviews. Mental illness and the problems with America's health care are the topics of 72 Hour Hold (2005), as well as the children's book, Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry (2002). Campbell's other books include Singing in the Comeback Choir (1998), What You Owe Me (2001), the play Even with the Madness (2003), and the children's book, Stompin' at the Savoy (2006). Her most recent title for children, I'm Hungry Now, was scheduled for posthumous publication.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Campbell, Bebe Moore, Sweet Summer: Growing Up with and without My Dad, Putnam (New York, NY), 1989.

Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 24, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2000.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, November 28, 2006, section 3, p. 6.

Los Angeles Times, November 28, 2006, p. B9.

New York Times, November 28, 2006, p. C20.

Washington Post, November 28, 2006, p. B6.