Obituary of Dolores Campbell

Dolores Ann Campbell (Biederwolf) died on February 25, 2023, at St Joseph’s Hospital in Tucson, Arizona after a brief illness. Dolores was born on August 5,1929, to Robert and Ermalinda Biederwolf in Brillion, Wisconsin, the second of seven children. Her father owned the Biederwolf Shoe Store and her mother sold Avon. Dolores was a very talented musician. Music was a huge part of family life, and she played piano and organ for school and at church. She described her childhood as idyllic, living in a small town with her close-knit family and friends. During WWII, she experienced food, gas, and clothing rationing and talked about how everything went to the war effort.

After graduating from Brillion High School in 1947, she attended Holy Family School of Nursing in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She graduated, became a registered nurse in 1950, and started work in a hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Many interesting stories came from that life changing time, including stories of the nuns who ran the nurses’ residence and their very strict rules. She told of coming in late and missing curfew after her first date (to Chicago!) with Denis Campbell, her handsome soon to be husband. Denis was a medical student, and they married the weekend he graduated from medical school in 1952. As newlyweds, they moved to Des Moines, Iowa.

Anxious to start a family, Dolores and Denis were devastated after suffering two miscarriages. They asked a group of nuns to put them on their prayer list and ended up having 12 children! Dolores would later joke that she should have gone back and asked to be taken off their prayer list. As Denis’ career progressed, they moved to Cleveland, Ohio, Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and finally Minneapolis, Minnesota. The twelve children became the passion and the focus of Dolores’ life. Caring for the kids - piano lessons, sports, homework, school schedules, grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, and ironing - consumed all of her days and nights for several decades. She ran the house and kids with a firm hand and a soft heart.

At the age of 50, Dolores decided she was ready to do something for herself and she went back to college to obtain a degree in social work from St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul, Minnesota. A few years later, she retired to Tucson, Arizona, where she spent her remaining years.

She had 28 grandkids and numerous great grandkids whose numbers are still growing. Throughout her life, Dolores’ hands were never still. She played piano, knitted for her family and charity, gardened, bought Christmas and birthday presents for every child and grandchild, volunteered for pro-life organizations, always had a puzzle going in her house, and stayed active in her children’s busy lives. Dolores had a deep faith in God and instilled that in her children. To say she was an amazing woman would be a big understatement. Hers was a life well-lived.

When Denis passed away in 2016, her daughter Ave moved in with Dolores as her primary caregiver, fulfilling the wish that Dolores would spend her remaining days in her home.

Dolores is survived by her children: Annette Zimmerman (Rick), Denis Campbell (Cathy), Jeanne Krekelberg (Randy), Ave Campbell, Donald Campbell, Claudette Wiitanen (Mark), Douglas Campbell (Jane), Camille Campbell, Dean Campbell, Janette Borgmeier (Dan), and Jennifer Campbell. She is also survived by siblings Edith Kelly, Richard Biederwolf, Judith Kaczmarski (Don), Marilyn Maynard (Wally) and her long-time friend and neighbor Ruth Campbell. She is preceded in death by her husband Denis Campbell, son David Campbell, daughter in law Annie Sommers, parents Robert and Ermalinda Biederwolf, and siblings Mark Biederwolf and Robert Biederwolf. A private funeral mass will be held on March 6th in Tucson, Arizona, and a Christian burial on March 11^th in the Campbell family plot in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

Dolores will be remembered with love, and her legacy will live on in her children and her children’s children.

Arrangements by Bring's Broadway Chapel, 6910 E. Broadway Blvd., Tucson, Arizona 85710