Hyacinth Ione Campbell
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Mother Campbell”
27 May 1949 — 4 September 2025 · aged 76
Baptist minister and principal who sheltered a whole district through Hurricane Gilbert
Montego Bay, Jamaica Born in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland Resting at Hampden Baptist Church burial ground, Montego BayAbout Hyacinth
When Hurricane Gilbert tore across Jamaica in September 1988, Hyacinth Campbell unlocked the doors of her primary school in Montego Bay at four in the morning, lit every lamp she could find and told the sixty frightened neighbors who arrived in the dark: “Come in. Nobody here is a stranger.” She fed them for nine days on whatever the cupboards held, and nobody went hungry, though the rice and peas grew noticeably thinner.
Born in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, in 1949, the sixth of nine children of a fisherman and a seamstress, Hyacinth won a scholarship to Mico Teachers' College in Kingston, graduated in 1969, and taught in rural schools in Westmoreland and St. James for thirteen years before becoming principal of a primary school in Montego Bay in 1982. She completed a degree in education at the University of the West Indies at Mona while teaching full time, a feat she described as “mostly tea and stubbornness.”
She led that school for twenty-seven years, in a building where the roof leaked and the report cards glowed. She fed lunch to children whose parents could not afford it, taught reading in the evenings, and sent so many pupils on to high school and university that people said you could not throw a stone in Montego Bay without hitting one of Miss Campbell's graduates. In 1989, answering a call she had long ignored, she began studies at the United Theological College of the West Indies, and in 1992 she was ordained a minister of the Jamaica Baptist Union, serving pulpit and classroom together until her retirement from the school.
Her sermons were famously short and her dinners famously long. She cooked Sunday rice and peas for half the congregation, kept a jar of tamarind balls in her handbag for children, and followed the West Indies cricket team through every dark decade, saying faith and cricket both required you to keep believing after the second collapse.
Rev. Campbell died peacefully at home in Montego Bay on 4 September 2025, aged seventy-six. She is survived by her daughter Marcia in Miami, her sons Leighton and Dwight, her sister Verona, nine grandchildren and thousands of former pupils who say her name when they say their prayers.
“Every pickney is somebody's treasure. Treat them so, and they will treasure you.”
- Faith
- Baptist
- Place of birth
- Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland
- Resting place
- Hampden Baptist Church burial ground, Montego Bay
- Passed away
- 4 September 2025, Montego Bay
Thanksgiving Service
Saturday, 20 September 2025 at 08:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Reverend Campbell Scholarship Fund
Scholarships for graduating Grade 6 pupils from the school she led, so that every child can go on to high school.
$1,634 raised of $4,500
36%9 recent contributions
- KS
Krystyna Szymura gave $190 · 11mo ago
“In honour of a great man.”
- FZ
Franca Zanetti gave $475 · 11mo ago
- LM
Leroy Mighty gave $19 · 11mo ago
- AN
Anonymous gave $475 · 11mo ago
- DG
Deacon Winston Gayle gave $95 · 11mo ago
Life journey
Teaching Certificate
Mico Teachers' College1967 – 1969 · Kingston
Graduated with distinction and a lifelong appreciation of a sharp red pencil.
Primary School Teacher
Rural primary schools1969 – 1982 · Westmoreland and St. James
Thirteen years teaching reading under zinc roofs.
Degree in Education
University of the West Indies, Mona1972 – 1975 · Kingston
Studied evenings and weekends while teaching full time.
Principal
Primary school, Montego Bay1982 – 2009 · Montego Bay
Twenty-seven years leading a school that opened its doors to the whole district.
Theological Studies
United Theological College of the West Indies1989 – 1992 · Kingston
Studied for ministry while still running the school.
Ordained Minister
Jamaica Baptist Union, Hampden Baptist Church1992 – 2025 · Montego Bay
Preached short sermons and served long dinners for thirty-three years.
Teacher of the Year, St. James
Ministry of Education1996 · St. James
Nominated by parents and former pupils across the parish.
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Family & connections
Hyacinth is survived by
- Marcia Campbell-Reid· Daughter
- Leighton Campbell· Son
- Dwight Campbell· Son
- Verona Campbell· Sister
- 9 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Hyacinth.
Knew Hyacinth? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- LM
Former pupil, now a cricket coach in Barbados
She taught me that a good innings is built one ball at a time. I played first-class cricket for six years and I credit her for every century. She never missed a match, sitting in the stands with a thermos and a Bible and no apology for either.
- RW
Fellow minister, Jamaica Baptist Union
Hyacinth was the first woman in our region to preach at the Union assembly, and she did it with a hurricane lamp on the pulpit as a joke about 1988. We laughed. Then we cried. Then we sang, because that is what she would have wanted.
- LW
Teacher who served under her
Principal Campbell taught me the most important lesson of my career: the child who is hardest to teach is the child who most needs it. She never gave up on one pupil in twenty-seven years. She cried at every graduation. So did we.
- DG
Deacon, Hampden Baptist Church
Rev. Campbell preached the shortest sermons in the Union and the most memorable. She said a sermon should be like a good mango: sweet, a little messy and finished before the juice runs out. May her mango tree bear fruit forever.
- DB
Former pupil, now a surgeon in Kingston
Miss Campbell told me at nine that I would be a doctor. I laughed. She said, “And who says you can't?” I am a surgeon at University Hospital now, and every time I scrub in, I hear her voice. She never asked if I was tired. She asked if I was finished.
- MC
Daughter, Miami
Mama took in every stray: children, dogs, preachers and, once, a whole cricket team in a rainstorm. At her kitchen table I learned that love is a verb that needs a pot. She never gave a sermon at home. She just cooked, and the sermon was the cooking.
