Published on July 8, 2025 10:21 am
Last Updated on July 8, 2025 10:21 am
Barbara Anne (Langkafel) Campbell, 88, of Effingham, IL, passed away on Sunday, July 6, 2025 at HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital in Effingham.
She will be laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Effingham, IL. As per her wishes, there will be no formal service. Johnson Funeral Home in Effingham, IL is assisting the family. Online condolences may be shared at www.johnsonandsonsfh.com.
Barb was born on in LaGrange, IL to Harry and Mary (Thon) Langkafel on February 24, 1937. The family moved to a farm in Missouri and lived there for several years before eventually moving to Effingham, where Barb lived for the majority of her life. After graduating from Effingham High School, she married John “Jack” Campbell on June 8, 1955. In January of 1960, they had their only child, Tracey Diane. The couple shared almost seventy years together before Jack’s passing in May of 2023. Barb was a talented person, both creatively and practically. She enjoyed sketching with pen and colorized photographs with paint. She also proudly spoke of how she taught herself to “write upsidedown and backwards” from a very young age. She was also quite financially shrewd and managed rental properties alongside her husband under “Imperial Acres.” As a young adult, she worked in taxi dispatching and technical support. Both she and Jack adored animals and bred American Eskimo and Samoyed dogs under “Sno-Star Kennels” from the 1960s into the early 1990s and continued raising Samoyeds into the current decade.
Barb is survived by her siblings-in-law, Larry (m. Donna) Campbell of Newton, Roy (m. Jeanne) Campbell of Effingham, and Julie (m. Roger) Rich of Jewett; son-in-law, Mike Conley (m. Tammy Monroe-Conley) of Effingham; granddaughter, Kristen Conley (m. Tyler Davis) of Effingham; and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews by marriage.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, daughter, Tracey Conley; half-brother, Herbert Langkafel; and siblings-in-law, Terry Campbell and Nancy Campbell.