Funeral services will take place on Wednesday, October 12, 2022, at 12:00 noon in the Chapel of the Engle-Bowling Funeral Home in Hazard, Kentucky. Burial will follow in the Herbert Campbell Cemetery in Busy, Kentucky. Visitation with the family will take place on Monday, October 10, 2022, from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. in the Chapel of the Taylor Funeral Home. Visitation will also take place on Tuesday, October 11, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the Hazard Village Church of Christ in Hazard, Kentucky and on Wednesday, October 12, from 11:00 a.m. until the time of service at the Engle-Bowling Funeral Home.
For those desiring, Memorial contributions can be made in Wilma’s Memory at Parkinson.org.
Mrs. Wilma Campbell McGlaughlin, age 87, of Dickson, TN, and formerly of Busy, KY, went to be with the Lord on September 29, 2022, at NHC of Dickson. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” - Psalm 116:15
She was an educated, well-read, articulate, and outspoken woman, strong of both character and opinion.
She was the child of a typical poor Appalachian family (her dad was a coal miner and farmer), but both her parents knew the value of an education and mortgaged their farm several times to send their children to school. From them, she learned a strong set of Christian values and duty toward others.
Wilma was a friend to all she met, and always had time to help someone, whether it was providing a hot meal or a haircut, visiting sick friends in the hospital, attending funerals, writing letters and sending notes of encouragement, or offering someone a ride to church. She always had time to provide a caring, listening ear, and to offer a word of well-meant advice. She cared for her aging mother as long as she physically could, and loved going on road trips to visit far-flung siblings, nieces & nephews, and cousins.
She was taught by her parents to not see differences in others’ skin color or economic status, that we were all God’s children. She even had to leave one teaching job in rural Georgia during the turbulent 1960s because she was friendly and polite to the black bus drivers and custodians. She was always quick to speak out against wrong and injustice in any form.
Wilma was the middle child of six, and the oldest girl. Because of this position in her family, she was always responsible and mature. While she was in college and teaching school, she often brought home gifts to her younger siblings, including hardcover versions of many of the great literary classics, as well as illustrated children’s books. She loved poetry and literature, and was always a dedicated library patron. After her retirement, she spent many happy hours catching up on reading.
She loved watching classic movies, documentaries and educational programs on public television, and always supported both public television and national public radio.
Wilma loved music, and, much like her mother Lenora, said she would rather do nothing in her life so much as sing. She was in chorus at Harding during her college days, and sang in community and civic choirs her entire life, a big part of which was singing in Handel’s Messiah almost every year at Christmas. She also sang in the residents’ choir
Wilma attended high school at the Stinnett Settlement School, a Christian boarding school in Leslie County. Her young life was shaped by the Christian values and godly lives of her teachers, which in turn influenced her to attend Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas. While in college, Wilma was a camp counselor at a Christian summer camp, Camp Wyldewood, where she formed lifelong friendships. She took her three children there every summer when they were growing up and often helped as a volunteer, as well as attending Christian singles’ retreats there. She received both her bachelor’s degree and a master of arts in teaching from Harding and taught high school biology and English all over the country, a quite unusual feat for a young single woman in the late 1950s. Wilma taught in Paragould, Pocahontas, and Hot Springs Arkansas, Truth or Consequences New Mexico, Magic Valley Christian College in Albion, Idaho, and Savannah, Georgia, to name just a few. As a young married mother, Wilma also lived in Indianapolis and California She was quite the adventurer!
Even though she dressed in a uniform with hard hat and boots for her job, Wilma always loved dressing up. She had a unique and eclectic fashion sense, and loved getting all dressed up for church from the time she was a young girl. She had a huge collection of fancy hats, and rarely went to church on Sunday mornings in her later years, without wearing one. She even continued this tradition after she entered the nursing home.
Wilma was a lifelong avid gardener, and in additional to a large shared vegetable garden on her parents’ property next door, she loved growing all sorts of houseplants and many kinds flowers in her well-tended flowerbeds: gardenias, azaleas, dahlias, black-eyed Susans, irises, daffodils, tulips, and roses, to name but a few.
In addition to teaching school, she taught Sunday school classes for most of her life, and taught many hundreds of children Bible stories and songs about God and Jesus, a legacy that will last for eternity.
As a mom, she sacrificed her own needs and wants for those of her children. Even though she worked full-time, she made sure they did their homework, made good grades, chauffeured them to band and academic team practices and trips, worked in the band’s concession stand at football games, and always showed up for every performance. She was a Girl Scout leader, and even did a stint as PTA president. When they were in college, she frequently made the long drives to Tennessee and Arkansas to see her kids, and never missed a single homecoming musical.
Wilma made sure that her kids had life skills such as learning to swim, keeping a garden, being able to cut up a whole chicken, make wonderful homemade biscuits, and to cook healthy and delicious meals. She loved freshly fried fish, and really appreciated when her brother Charles would bring her some that he had caught on a fishing trip. In the summer, she and the family canned and froze fresh produce for the winter months. Holidays and family reunions were special times, filled with talk, laughter, and good food.
She sacrificed so that all of her children could spend at least some time attending a Christian college. Her greatest happiness was seeing each of them marry a Christian mate, and knowing that they walked with the Lord.
For Wilma, the birth of her grandchildren ushered in a new era of joy and delight. She moved to Dickson, Tennessee to be near daughter Christina and her six kids and spent time with them nearly every day. She loved having the kids spend the night at her apartment, cooking with them, attending birthdays, church, and other events, and spending many hours, snuggling and reading bedtime stories. Her grandson Zakkary, Adrian’s son, was born on her birthday, which was a special delight to her.
Due to health conditions including Parkinson’s and dementia, Wilma entered NHC nursing home in Dickson in 2015 after several hospital stays. She was a ray of sunshine to all her caregivers, and even when she was fussy and cantankerous, they still loved her. She loved visiting with the staff and getting to know them, and even in her twilight years continued to influence lives for good with her Christian love and unique spirit. Her family are very grateful for the wonderful care that she has received there.
Although we are sad at this earthly parting, we have every hope that we will see Wilma again in God’s eternal kingdom, and that she is forever with the Lord. Her final and greatest request to all who knew and loved her would be for us to live our lives in such a way as to be able to see her again in that heavenly home.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother: Owen Campbell; her sister: Janis Campbell Long; and her great-granddaughter: Oliviah Boswell.
Survivors include her son: Adrian McGlaughlin, of Mt. Home, AR; her daughters: Christina Boswell (Todd), of Dickson, TN, and Heather Batey (Patrick), of Pelham, AL; her brothers: Harold Campbell (Gloria) of New Palestine, IN, and Charles Ott Campbell (Betty), of Ary, KY; her sister: Sharon Upchurch (Richard), of Lexington, KY; her grandchildren: Alasdair Boswell (Sarah), Cameron Boswell, Ian Boswell, Sophia Boswell, Caitlin Boswell, Gavin Boswell, and Zakkary Leach; and her great-granddaughter: Aila Mae Boswell.
