Owen Campbell Jr. vividly recalls how his hard-working mother set an example for her kids while they were growing up in the small town of Pacific.

“Dealing with people. She was so good with people. She was amazing,” Campbell said, glancing at his gentle, soft-spoken mother who sat nearby. “She taught me a lot of patience. She taught me how to be a good person. She taught me how to treat people.

“She’s very loving, a great mother.”

Ruth Campbell is many things to the many people she has touched in her lifetime. To her close-knit family, she is a special person, the beloved matriarch who was quiet and demure, thoughtful and telling, strong and resourceful.

Ruth was true to her Christian roots. She was a devoted wife for 53 years. She raised two children and mentored many others while working the family’s all-purpose service station on 3rd Avenue for 30 years. She taught Sunday school for many years at the Methodist Church located next to the store and the convenient apartment where the Campbells lived.

Pacific’s oldest known former resident, a friend to many generations, turns 100 on Sunday. The community will celebrate her birthday from noon to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Pacific Community Center, 100 3rd Ave. SE – a fitting place to honor a woman who has given so much of herself.

“I love people. I live day to day,” Ruth said of her formula for a long life. “I have had a good life because I enjoyed it, and I’ve enjoyed the many people I’ve met.”

A pillar in the community, Ruth ran the only mom-and-pop gas station in Pacific from 1943-73. She would watch the store until her husband, Owen Sr., returned from working in the Tacoma shipyards during the World War II effort. In his absence, the family helped out with the chores, and Ruth showed the way.

“Working at the store, I learned many things from her. I could count change and pump gas at the age of 9,” said Ed Campbell, Ruth’s grandson. “Back in the day, we washed, checked the oil and did everything.”

‘Candy Lady’

To one generation, Ruth was known affectionately as the “Candy Lady” when penny brands were sold over the counter. Ruth’s store was a popular gathering spot, especially for kids who would climb the high stools and wait eagerly as she scooped hard ice cream.

Ruth was a good listener, not a talker.

“She never yelled, but you knew where you stood,” said Ruth’s daughter, Judy. “Mother was a hard worker. … We know we had to work for what we got. She taught us good values.”

Born in Seattle, Ruth has lived in the Green River Valley throughout her long life. She attended Pacific schools for 10 years, then to Auburn where she graduated from high school in 1928.

She attended business school before marrying Owen Sr. in 1932. She worked in a department store and eventually for a packing company office.

In 1932, the couple moved to Pacific where they raised their two children. They were frugal but always put food on the table, even during the Great Depression and wartime.

At the timem Owen Sr. was working in the shipyards, they decided to purchase the gas station from the Hardins. They family operated it successfully for 30 years before selling the operation to to Barbara and Claud Dunnigan.

Campbell’s store was in the building now occupied by Glenda White’s Gift and Collectible Shop, which also houses the Pacific Post Office. The Campbells also owned a beauty parlor/barber shop, located on the corner of 3rd and Milwaukee Avenue, which they converted to a home in 1974.

Ruth has remained active in her church throughout her life. She also enjoyed camping, gardening, cooking, reading, listening to classic and hymnal music and in her younger days, playing basketball. She spent time oil painting landscapes.

The Campbells spent most of their retirement years in Pacific. Owen Sr. passed away in 1986.

Ruth lives today in a retirement home in south Auburn, appearing fit and sharp. She is surrounded not only by her son and daughter but by grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

“To this day, all the nieces and nephews turn to her,” Judy said. “We need her. We still need her. She’s always been the responsible one. Whenever someone needed help, she was always there.”

And Ruth, the centenarian, still needs them.

“Just remember to love people,” she said.