Veteran Black Journalist-Novelist Bebe Moore Campbell Dies of Brain Cancer at Her Home

Campbell started her career as a journalist, writing for the New York Times Magazine, Black Enterprise, Essence, Ebony, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times.

Campbell's last book, Stompin' at the Savoy, was published in September. It's a children's book about a young girl who is magically transported to the famous ballroom where the jazz greats performed. “72 Hour Hold,” is the story of a woman in a love triangle whose life is shattered when her child develops a mental illness. Also among her works were novels, “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine,” “Singing in the Comeback Choir,” and a memoir, “Sweet Summer, Growing Up With and Without My Dad.”

She received numerous awards throughout her career, including a National Association of Negro Business and Professional Literature Award in 1978, a 1994 NAACP Image Award for literature, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Grant in 1980 and the University of Pittsburgh’s Distinguished Alumni Award. She was also named an Alumni Trustee of the University in June 2005

After her diagnosis became public, Campbell posted letters on her Web site thanking friends and supporters for their cards, gifts and words of inspiration. Campbell was 56.

Campbell's viewing will be held Saturday, December 2, 2006 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., followed by the funeral service at First A.M.E. Church, 2270 South Harvard Boulevard, in Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, her family asked that donations be sent to her favorite charities: National Alliance for the Mentally Ill - Urban Los Angeles and the United Negro College Fund.

Bebe Moore Campbell is a gifted writer and will be missed by her reading fans.