The woman who, in 2012, received a standing ovation when she accepted her BS degree from the University of Phoenix for being the oldest graduate, Christina Hall Campbell, 96, of Jacksonville, Florida, passed away peacefully in her sleep on October 16, 2023 after a battle with complications from a massive brain stroke.
Christina Campbell was born on January 24, 1927, to Christopher Hall and Sula Gloster Wells in Ocala, Florida. Christina graduated early in eleventh grade from high school in Ocala, went on to study Fine Arts at West Virginia State, and then graduated from a school so competitive its acceptance rate is just at eight percent: the Juilliard School in New York. Going to the most prestigious performing arts school in the world, it's no surprise that Christina was not only a very classy lady—always wearing stylish clothes and following etiquette like the true queen she was—but she never, ever hesitated to share her thrilling, soprano voice as a soloist in church choirs, at Thanksgiving dinners and practically any gathering where folk came together to praise God.
Perhaps, it was her sophistication, her heavenly smile or her absolutely delicious lasagna, but there was something special about her that helped her capture the attention of her young love and in 1948, Christina married John in a quaint little courthouse in Folkston, Georgia. Not long after, she kickstarted a more than sixty-year career in real estate, where the two resided in Queens, New York.
Christina loved to dance, loved gospel music and one of her favorite secular songs was Midnight at the Oasis by Maria Muldaur, but her all-time favorite pastime was being with family. She adored every member of her family and the friends she often played bridge with at her club meetings, whom she also called family, because Christina was a big believer in always being there for the people she loved. She was a member of the Beaux Mone, The Jims, The Gate City Duplicate Bridge Clubs and The American Bridge Association.
Christina was predeceased by her husband, John Campbell; her parents, her brother, Christopher Nathaniel Hall, and sister, Gloria Johnson.
"Auntie", as she was called by so many, is survived by a beloved sister-in-law, Earline Tucker; her nieces and nephews, Carol Lynn Brown, Dr. Herman Tucker, Annette Hall, Michell Fields, Carla Fields, Dorothy Lindsey (Michael), LaShanda Jordan, Acemandese Nzondi Hall and Antonio Dickens, her endearing great-nieces, Akiketa Kenice Shelton (Richard), Nkendia Calynn Brown, Kemora Russell (Robert), Kristal Hall, Nkendia Chanell McNealy and Kesharee Renique Baxter; a number of other loving great nieces and nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends, as well as her dear friend, Solomon Siyoum.