Obituaries

Fashion Designer Jeanne S. Campbell Dies

Prominent sportswear designer Jeanne S. Campbell, best known for her innovative combinations of fabrics and casual outfits, has died. She passed way at the age of 82 on Wednesday night, July 24th at the Oxford, N.Y. home of her daughter, Jean E. Petersen, after complications resulting from a stroke.

Jeanne Sanford was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. on October 16, 1919. She knew that she wanted to be a fashion designer from the age of 10. After graduating from Mt. Lebanon high school, Jeanne went to the Pittsburgh Art Institute for fashion art. At the age of 20 Jeanne opened a small dress shop in Clearwater, Florida, where the Sanfords had a winter home. Her experience and ambition helped her to win first prize, $500.00, in the Chicago Tribune's 1941 American Fashions Competition.

During World War II, Jeanne worked for the Civil Aeronautics Administration drawing charts and maps. While visiting her mother in Clearwater she met Edward A. Campbell, who was then a Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps. They married in 1944.

After the war, the couple moved to New York City. Jeanne Campbell was soon hired as a fashion designer by Loomtogs. By her fifth year with the company she won the Mademoiselle Merit Award in June 1951 for producing "inventive denims combining organdy and jersey", and "glamour separates".

Shortly after, Jeanne was invited to join Sportwhirl, Inc. as their new designer (successor to Lorraine Budny). Jeanne's designs defined the word "separates" to the world of fashion. In the book Young Faces In Fashion (Beryl Williams, J.B. Lippincott Company, 1956), Jeanne said, "they [separates] can be just about anything these days. They're more a way of dressing than any particular kind of clothes for particular occasions."

Her characteristically fresh, easy-to-wear clothes won her the 1955 Coty American Fashion Critics' Award ("Winnie") from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She was praised for her "development of fabrics particularly suited to the young, smart life, her related collections, her excellent cut and color sense for making clothes that reflect the best American tendencies in the inexpensive sportswear market."

Jeanne won the 1958 Sports Illustrated's American Sportswear Designers Award. She received many other forms of recognition including being chosen one of the Woman's Wear Daily's "Women of the Year" designers in 1970, and a White House luncheon during the Lyndon Johnson administration. She was also featured in "Anatomy of a Garment Center Firm" by Peter Hellman (The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 14, 1975) which described the design and garment making process at Sportwhirl, Inc.

Jeanne remained at Sportwhirl for over two decades. "Jeanne Campbell for Sportwhirl" became synonymous with innovative design and her fashions turned up on noteworthy personalities such as Ava Gardner, Lynda Bird Johnson, and Liza Minelli to name a few. Her designs graced the covers of all the prominent magazines, including Vogue, Harpers, Mademoiselle, Life, Look, and Glamour. Her career brought her around the world to exotic locations like Hong Kong, India, Paris, and Italy.

Jeanne Campbell moved to Westhampton, Long Island, after divorcing her husband in 1964. She made the four-hour round-trip commute to her studio in New York until her retirement in 1977. Afterwards, she continued to remain active in the fashion industry. She was an honorary instructor and judge at Parsons School of Design and at the Fashion Institute of Technology for several years. Later, Jeanne Campbell traveled to Barbados and Lima, Peru, with the International Executive Service Corp (IESC*) to consult with various fashion industries and instruct promising young artists who might not otherwise have had a chance to become fashion designers. Tirelessly creative, she ran a bed and breakfast at her home in Westhampton until a year before her death.

Ms. Campbell is survived by her sister Marre Harrington of Belleair Beach, Florida, her two children, Edward A. Campbell, Jr. of New York City and Jean E. Petersen of Oxford, New York, and three grandchildren.

If you wish to make a tax-deductible contribution in Jeanne's memory please send it to the Jeanne S. Campbell scholarship fund at Parsons School of Design, dept. of Fashion Design, 560 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018.

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*The International Executive Service Corps is a not-for-profit volunteer organization that provides technical and managerial assistance to people in the developing world and the emerging democracies. Their web address is: http://www.ies.org/