Just Jack: The Life and Music Ministry of Jack Campbell

By Betty Burris and Charlene Campbell

I will always have great memories of Jack Campbell. The first song we ever recorded of his was titled Jesus. It became the Rambos first number-one radio song. We enjoyed recording many others, such as Oh What a Happy Day and March Around The Throne. Jack was a great songwriter and a fine Christian gentleman. Buck Rambo

Jack Campbell was the creator of the nations number one southern gospel song for seven consecutive weeks in 2012: I Know a Man Who Can, as recorded by Greater Vision. Jack was the seventh son in a poverty-stricken rural Swifton, Arkansas, family. His childhood years during the Depression Era were characterized by tragedy, isolation, poverty, and Hand-Me-Downs. As an orphan, Jack thought he was in a suburb of Heaven when his brother, Bill, moved Jack and his own family to Gideon, in the bootheel of Missouri. Bill would pastor the Assembly of God Church while raising Jack as if he were his own son, rather than as his younger brother.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, gospel radio was filled with his music. Many of the industrys top artists, including the Rambos, the Inspirations, the Speer Family, the Kingsmen Quartet, and soloist, Governor Jimmie Davis, filled their albums with Jack Campbells music. More recently, country legend George Jones recorded I Know a Man Who Can. In his forty-plus years of traveling, he mentored over forty-five teens and young adults. His son, Chris, a great bass guitar player and songwriter, would go on to play for the Happy Goodman Family. A young Gene McDonald, the great bass singer of the Florida Boys (and the Gaithers), would spend time as a part of the Ambassadors, singing tenor. Gary ONeal, The Absolutely Gospel Website

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490826660

Betty Burris

Charlene and her sister, Betty Burris, grew up listening to and appreciating Jack Campbell and his music. After his passing, they combined their knowledge and skills to create this work and promote his legacy. Betty is a retired teacher, school administrator, and published author, and she now lives in Ellisville, Missouri.

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Copyright © 2014 Charlene Campbell and Betty Burris.

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Scripture quotations are taken from the Good News Bible (GNB), Life Application Bible (LAB), New International Bible (NIV), King James Version (KJV), as noted in the text.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-2667-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2668-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2666-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903097

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/27/2014

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1: Number Seven’s Hand Me Downs

Chapter 2: "The Next Step

Chapter 3: The Prayerful Plea: Jesus Use Me

Chapter 4: Kidding Around— This Trip is Paid One Way

Chapter 5: I Know a Man…—Just Jack—At Home in the Cotton Patch

Chapter 6: A Simple Man With an International Impact

Chapter 7: Resting in the Arms of a Never-Failing God

Epilogue

About the Authors

Photographer Recognition

*   Tom McDonald Studio, Bragg City, MO 63827 Phone [phone]

*   Vonda’s Portrait Studio, 111 South Gideon Avenue, Gideon, MO 63848 Phone [phone]. (Also Front Cover Photo of Jack Campbell)

*   Swafford’s Studio, 13061 Co Rd 678, P.O. Box 757, Bernie, MO 63822, Phone [phone].

*   Redman’s Studio, 208 Patty Lynn Drive, Kennett, MO 63857

*   Robert Green Studio, Malden, MO 63863

*   Gary Wilcoxson, 901 South Bypass, Kennett, MO 63857

*   Jimmy Alford Studio, Inc. 3061 Millbranch, Memphis, TN 38116-1992; Phone [phone].

*   Nelson Parkerson, P.O. Box 8570, Stockton, CA 95208.

*   Buck Studio, c/o Barbara Dalton, Bloomfield, MO

*   Wagner Portrait Group, Hal Wagner Studios, Inc. 10803 Olive Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63141; Phone [phone].

*   Lifetouch NSS, Stacey Prather, 104 W. Main Street, Park Hills, MO 63601 Phone [phone]

*   Rob Roy Photos, 215 South Missouri Street, Jackson, TN 38301; Phone [phone].

*   Standard-Democrat, 205 South New Madrid St., Sikeston, MO 63801

*   Lele Fain Photography, Nashville, TN

Acknowledgments

This book is the result of collaboration in its most positive sense. Charlene Campbell spent many hours researching the story, but much of the story was not to be found in print, because it had been imprinted on the hearts and minds of people who lived it with Jack Campbell. To those who pulled those story parts from their memories and forwarded them to us, we express heartfelt appreciation!

We are also deeply indebted to Shelley Williams Johnson and Phyllis Piatt for their many hours of dedication to the drudgery of commanding the computer to produce the layout that the authors pictured in their minds. May God richly reward their patience.

To the family members and friends who read or listened to the manuscript in its making and gave us feedback, we say, Thank you! May God bless you for giving us your time, thoughts, and talents.

To those who believed in this effort and supported us with encouragement and prayers, we thank you.

God honored us with the call to share the work that He started with Jack Campbell, and we are thankful to Him for having done so. We are thankful for His faithfulness in finishing the work He started.

We thank God that people will be blessed by this story, and as the Apostle James taught us, we accept that everything good comes from God. To God be the glory!

—Charlene Campbell and Betty Burris

Prologue

The melodious sounds of his music filled the air and stirred the emotions throughout The First United Pentecostal Church in Kennett, Missouri on Thursday, February 15, 2007. Overwhelming love for him was being demonstrated by family, friends, and business associates. Representatives from at least nine states were showing respect and paying tribute to one of Gospel Music’s greatest composers, Jack Campbell.

Mingling with the crowd, one heard comments like: Ol’ Jack sure was a good person, Ol’ Jack sure wrote some good songs, or Ol’ Jack was one of the best furniture salesmen I’ve ever seen. All of those statements were appropriate praise, but for me, one of his most remarkable talents was being overlooked. Jack was an amazing Master of Ceremonies or spokesperson—one of the best I’ve ever heard! He was quick-witted, a fast thinker, and just seemed to have a talent for saying the right thing at the right time. His sense of humor when talking about a member of his singing group would cause the room to roar with laughter. A few minutes later, he would have the congregation wiping tears as he spoke of his childhood experiences, having grown up in poverty during the Depression and Prohibition Eras with an alcoholic father who bootlegged whiskey to local law enforcement officials. He could create empathy throughout the room as he related another’s painful story or praise report. He could lead a crowd in any direction that he wanted them to go.

This talent or gift was alive on that February day, for it had been passed on to his son, Chris. Though crushed with grief, this young man was empowered to do an outstanding job in leading the memorial service—or, as I like to think of it—Jack’s Home Going Celebration. Denny Autry, a former Ambassador, complimented the tone that Chris had set for the service with a stirring rendition of Address Change Notification, acknowledging the departure of our loved one from Earth to his eternal home in Heaven. The atmosphere created was exactly what Jack would have accomplished if he could have been the Master of Ceremonies.

I, personally, was strengthened that day by a couple of Jack’s songs that played in my mind. It was comforting to know that Jack was now Resting in the Arms of a Never-Failing God. I found peace, too, in the words of a song that Jack had written in memory of Fern Sparrowks who had been one of his youth leaders and a dear friend: "It will be Good Morning, Jesus, over there." By miraculous means, Jack’s spirit was both there and in Heaven that day.

Jack’s songs: I’ve Got More To Go To Heaven For, Oh, What a Happy Day, March Around the Throne, and others had a whole new meaning for the choir and band that day. They had all been members of the group, Jack Campbell and the Ambassadors, and had sung and played those same songs in just about every church and venue in the Midwest. At that time, their leader and mentor was appreciating their performance from a different perspective.

This book is an account of the life and music ministry of this remarkable man. It is an attempt to paint a picture of the circumstances that brought Jack to the point of his prayerful plea, Jesus Use Me and to illustrate how the Holy Spirit did that in such an awesome way. The purpose of the book is two-fold. We hope to honor Jack’s life and legacy, but, more importantly, we want to inspire others to make themselves available to become God’s instruments on earth.

Charlene Campbell

Chapter One

Number Seven’s Hand Me Downs

Some of the circumstances surrounding Jack Campbell’s life could be deemed special. One of these relates to his birth. The odds are against a couple producing seven boys with no girls interrupting the sequence, but that’s what happened in the Johnny and Nellie Campbell Family when their seventh son, Jack, was born on August 6, 1927 in rural Swifton, Arkansas. The fact that Jack was number seven may have foreshadowed the life that he would lead. Seven is considered by many to have a spiritual connection related to perfection or fullness. From Genesis to Revelation, seven is a reoccurring number. God created for six days, and rested on the seventh day. The Bible delineates seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Sevens numbered the Hebrew Feasts and furnishings of the Tabernacle. Chronobiology, the study of how living things handle time, speaks of the rhythm of seven being imbedded in living cells. It would appear that from the beginning, God chose to associate Himself with seven. Perhaps, even before Jack was born, God had chosen to use this person to spread His Gospel on Earth. God’s reassuring words to the prophet, Isaiah, comprise an appropriate testimony for the orphan from Arkansas: I am the Lord who created you; from the time you were born, I have helped you. Do not be afraid; you are my servant… (Isaiah 44:2) GNB.

Nellie, Jack’s Mother died when Jack was four years old. While Jack never remembered much about her, the tombstone inscription indicates that she was a tender mother and a faithful friend. Her second son, Gussie, preceded her in death and is buried beside her in Arnold Cemetery in Jackson County, Arkansas. The inscription on the small stone, undoubtedly, connotes the family’s attempt to find answers to questions about why he was with them for just three months: BUDED (sic) ON EARTH TO BLOOM IN HEAVEN.

Nellie McDaniel Campbell was born on November 25, 1885. She, reportedly, was the victim of a host of hardships, but pneumonia was the official cause of her death that occurred on March 28, 1932. Family members told of how Nellie’s father had objected to her marriage to Johnny Campbell, and that he had tried to separate the two after the birth of their first two sons, Bill and Gussie. Jack had negative impressions of his Grandfather McDaniel. He referred to him as The Old Man, and remembered that he came for a visit when Nellie became ill. Jack’s resentment stemmed from mental pictures of his grandfather bringing cereal into the house and serving himself only with the children looking on hungrily.

Jack talked about other times when there was no food in the house. He said the only time in his life that he stole was when he went into a neighbor’s home once when no one was there and took a biscuit and an onion because he was hungry. He also remembered going to a store in town from time to time and asking for food saying that his father would pay for it later.

While he did not remember much about life with his mother, Jack had a vivid picture in his mind of her death. He remembered that his family built a pine box, lined it with cotton, and placed her in it for burial. Friends and family spent the night at their house before loading the pine box into the wagon, hitching up the mules, and taking her to the cemetery the next day.

Jack’s father lived until Jack was eleven, and Jack remembered well those seven years between the deaths of his parents. The Campbell home was a small cabin-like structure near a stream a few miles from town. After Nellie’s death, it was a man clan with no gentle, refined touches. While Jack was little more than a baby by age, there was no place in that household for a baby. His brothers, Robert and Joe, were children, too, but there was no time for growing up. The times were hard, and hard times produce hard people. Johnny Campbell had mouths to feed, and he did it in the way that seemed most practical to him. Prohibition created a market for whiskey, and Johnny knew how to make whiskey. His older sons were assets in the bootlegging business. Local law enforcement agents could be bought with a quality product and shrewd skills. Mr. Campbell had skills—both business skills and manual skills. He was a woodcutter, and if local officials wanted to stay warm on frigid, winter nights, they would look the other way when they were in the vicinity of the Campbell still. Jack recalled helping supply those officials with wood, and he was aware of the importance of those deliveries.

One area in which Johnny Campbell was lacking skills was parenting. Alcohol played an important role in his life. He worked hard and relieved stress with his homemade brew and refreshments that he bought in town whenever he could scrape together a bit of money. These habits were prevalent before his wife’s passing. Jack had a scar on his arm from a burn when he was very young. He pulled boiling coffee off the stove, and it spilled on his arm. His mother sent his father