She has her own parking spot marked with a large star. Her automobile tag reads “Q Dr. B” (for “Queen Dr. Betty”), and the college president has been known to bow before her.
Betty Campbell is known on the Judson College campus in Marion as “the queen” not so much for her royal deportment — though she is known to dress well and have her hair perfectly coiffed — but for an incident that happened on a choir trip in 1994.
“We drove through Scotland and Dr. Murray’s wife — he was the college dean at the time — kept talking about her royal ancestry,” she explained.
“I mentioned that I had a Scotch ancestor named McLemore who was a sept of the Royal Stuarts. (A sept is a subsidiary family joining a clan for reasons of family relationship, protection from enemies, financial gain, food or improved status.)
“Mrs. Murray and I good-naturedly picked at each other during the trip about who was the most royal,” Campbell said.
One afternoon along the trip Campbell was awakened from a nap by a trumpet fanfare.
“The students put a Burger King crown on my head, a blanket around my shoulders and a walking stick for a scepter in my hands,” she recalled.
“The students read a proclamation that I was now the queen and sang a wonderful song they’d composed. I walked up and down the aisle of the bus waving like Queen Elizabeth. It was all great fun.”
Since that day she’s been Queen Betty of Judson College.
“(College president) Dr. Potts carries on about this,” she said. “I treasure photos I have with him bowing before me.”
“While all of us at Judson enjoy Dr. Campbell’s title,” Potts said, “the truth of her position lies in the esteem and affection which our community holds for a woman who is a great teacher of voice and who has triumphed in the face of life’s struggles because of her faith. Hail, Queen Betty!”
Campbell grew up as Betty Smith in Laurel, Miss., the daughter of a Southern Baptist minister.
After high school, she earned degrees from Louisiana State University, Northwestern University and Columbia University.
She and her husband, Bracey, moved to Marion in 1976 to teach music and work with the college choir.
Bracey Campbell directed the Judson Singers until his death in 1989, and then Betty Campbell took the helm.
“It’s been a great experience to work with so many young Judson women and to travel all over the world with them,” said Campbell. “We’ve enjoyed singing praise to God and encouraging other Christians along the way.”
Campbell gave up directorship of the Judson Singers in 2000, but remains active teaching voice at the college and traveling with the choir whenever she can.
Campbell has also served the Marion Presbyterian Church as choir director for more than 20 years.
“I play the piano and attend Sunday School at Siloam Baptist Church, then cross the street and worship at Marion Presbyterian,” she said. “Our community is so wonderful to share resources and the churches work together.”
She also continues to direct the Marion community’s presentation of the “Messiah” every Christmas.
Campbell says her pride and joy are her two grandchildren in Corning, N.Y.: Henry, 6, and Elizabeth, 3. Campbell has already dubbed them “the prince” and “the princess.”
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