[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7182-S7183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERINBG ELLEN CAMPBELL

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I speak today in memory of a 
friend and dear Alaskan, Ellen Campbell of Juneau, who passed away on 
October 16, 2018, at age 96.
  Ellen was the mother of McKie Campbell, who served as Republican 
staff director for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 
2008-2013. On behalf of my Senate colleagues, I take this opportunity 
to extend condolences to McKie, his siblings and their spouses, and the 
many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews who held 
Ellen dear. She was a very special person.
  Ellen was a native of Waynesboro, GA. She grew up wanting to be a 
stewardess. That is what women who wanted to fly aspired to in Ellen's 
day, but after college, her career took a decidedly different 
direction. She went to work helping the war effort. That was during 
World War II when women were needed to backfill positions held by men 
who went off to war. She was a link trainer operator at the Atlanta 
Naval Base and then went on to lecture pilots. That led Ellen to wonder 
whether she might become one herself.
  ``It seemed absurd to be lecturing about flying and not have a 
private pilot's license, so I asked my father for my birthday present 
if he would give me flying lessons,'' Ellen explained. Shortly after 
obtaining that license, she applied to serve in the Women's Airforce 
Service Pilots, the WASP program. The hardest thing about it, Ellen 
said, was the fear that she would wash out during training. Ellen came 
darn close but managed to pass the three primary qualification tests.
  She served in the WASP program from its inception in 1942 to its 
disbandment on December 20, 1944. Her

[[Page S7183]]

role was that of an engineering test pilot. Stationed in Jackson, MS, 
she flew many different kinds of aircraft; her favorite was the B-25 
bomber.
  Ellen was one of 1,074 women who earned their WASP wings. Her service 
and those of her fellow WASPs was honored with a Congressional Gold 
Medal authorized by law on July 1, 2009. Ellen traveled to Washington, 
DC, to receive her medal in March 2010.
  When asked how she felt about her time in the WASPs by the Juneau 
Empire, the first word that came to mind was ``service.'' She went on 
to offer a favorite quote from Marian Wright Edelman, ``Service is the 
rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not 
something you do in your spare time.''
  These were words that Ellen lived by, during her service to our 
Nation and throughout the remainder of her life. Ellen came to Alaska 
with her husband Charles, who had been recruited to head the Alaska 
Department of Corrections. He retired from the department in the 1980s. 
Ellen threw herself into community service. A person of deep faith, 
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Juneau was her anchor.
  She ran a weekly Bible study group at Lemon Creek Correctional 
Center. Inspired by interactions with women who struggled to reenter 
society after serving their sentences, she founded Haven House, a 
nonprofit ministry to foster healing and self-sufficiency for women 
coming out of prison in Southeast Alaska.
  McKie told the Juneau Empire, ``Without being naive at all, she was 
convinced that everyone was good and had potential. She always saw the 
best in people.''
  Ellen relocated to northern Virginia in 2009, with Charles, who died 
in 2012. It was there that she passed away, but Ellen's legacy will 
long be remembered in Juneau, which celebrated her life in a memorial 
service at Holy Trinity on Tuesday, November 13.
  I am honored to pay tribute to Ellen Campbell, a force of nature who 
helped people find the best in themselves.

                          ____________________