“Klug, Koenigstein and Pasewalk are some of the streets that were named after them (founding families),” Campbell said. “I took my husband home to meet my parents and he asked, ‘Who would name a street that?’ I said, ‘I wouldn’t tell my mother that if I were you.’ It seemed like a strange name to him.”
She attended Jefferson Elementary School in kindergarten and then St. Paul Lutheran School for the rest of her elementary and junior high years. She then graduated from Norfolk High School in 1965.
She left Norfolk to attend the University of Nebraska.
Campbell’s father, the late Harvey Kuester, worked with Johnny Carson’s father, Kit, at the local public power district.
Her father said Johnny would come down to the shop and his father would pay him a quarter or 50 cents to sweep out the office. He would entertain the workers with magic tricks.
“Dad always laughed and said, ‘That kid really isn’t going to amount to very much.’ Dad was not impressed with Johnny’s magical skills,” she said.
Politics runs in her blood, Campbell said, as her father was elected as Stanton County surveyor and her paternal grandfather was the chairman of the Stanton city council.
Campbell served in student politics but was elected to her first professional office position on the Lancaster County board of commissioners in 1986. She ended up serving four four-year terms.
After retiring from that, another opportunity to serve came up with a vacancy for Legislature’s 25th district. She was elected in 2008.
Campbell said she was surprised at how much she enjoys getting to know and working with the other 48 senators.
“One day you may be on the same side and the next day you may be on opposite sides,” she said. “But building that congeniality and respect was something that I did not expect.”
This session, Campbell plans on introducing a handful of new bills. Some of the focus will be on coming up with a new funding infrastructure to build new roads and maintain bridges, helping youth in the transition out of foster care, and an immunization pilot program for children’s health.
Campbell is married to Dick and they have two children, Andy of Lincoln, and Carrie Grimes of Chicago, Ill.
Apart from her legislative service, Campbell works as the executive vice president of the Cedars Home for Children Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on improving the lives of abused, neglected and otherwise vulnerable children and their families.
