Obituary - Patricia McGinnis Campbell
March 2, 1929 – April 7, 2026
April 13, 2026
An amazing and special lady left her most loved family, her dear friends and beloved ranch on April 7, 2026. Patricia McGinnis Campbell was born March 2, 1929 in Provo, Utah to Joe and Eunice McGinnis. She grew up on Lake Street in Salt Lake City with her brother Bill, sister JoAnn and her lifelong best friend, Betty Jean Cowley.
Her father, Joe McGinnis, was the grandson of William John McGinnis who came from Nebraska in 1880 and began to settle and ranch in the area known then as Midway, Wyoming. There were originally five of the children of this family, many more grandchildren who stayed and continued to developed a large portion of the area from LaBarge to Big Piney into ranching. Joe rode for the cattle association of the ranches in his young years. Once he was married, he moved to Salt Lake City. As a teenager Pat spent the summers on part of the McGinnis ranch with her Uncle Anderson and Aunt Delia. She remembered these times with great fondness, experiencing the hardships of ranching for the first time. Pat was proud of her heritage and the ranches her ancestors started. Many of them still in business today.
Pat graduated from the University of Utah with high honors and a degree in English and Library Science. While she was going to the University of Utah, she began to come to the V-V Guest Ranch in Bondurant to work as cabin girl in the summers. She loved to tell the about two handsome men, coming in the kitchen of the lodge to grab lunches for their hunters. It was early morning the first time she saw them. Harve Stone spoke to her. The other one, Walden Campbell, stood back and didn’t say anything, but she saw a look in his eye. He was the one she decided to pursue and they dated for the next 3 summers.
After she graduated from the University of Utah, she applied to Radcliff College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the sister school to Harvard. She was accepted. This was something she was proud of her whole life. She was enrolled to begin her studies in January of 1953. She came to visit Walden on December 2, to tell him good bye. He said he knew if she went back east, he would lose her. He asked her to marry him and they were married the next day December 3, 1952 in Jackson, Wyoming. Years later all she had to show Katherine was the letter saying simply "You have been accepted to Radcliff College." She also admitted she was happy she made the choice to get married saying it was meant to be.
Walden owned a ranch with his father in Bondurant. After he and Pat were married, they bought another ranch to add to the land they already had. There was no electricity but a light plant when they first moved to the ranch. It was a rugged way of life in those days. They ranched together, Pat always doing her part and Walden his. There were lots of "tough times" and times when she said she kept telling herself we must endure until it gets better. As she aged, she looked back at the hard times as glue that drew her family together and gave purpose to their life.
Their first son, Kevin, was born in 1954, followed by Katherine, Colleen and Lennie. Walden died in 1979 leaving behind a young family, a young widow, and the ranch they all loved. Pat stepped up to the plate in every way. She took a deep interest in the success of the ranch until the day of her death. She never wanted it to be sold or divided in anyway. She also did the books until the day she died. She was so proud of how her "boys" kept the place running. She never accepted the fact she contributed so much, as their partner. The ranch became the soul and world of her family, with her home the center of that world. She was so proud that her grandson, Walden, chose to carry on the ranching tradition so passionately. Her last words to him, "keep the fires burning."
She put on the greatest dinners in the area when there was any occasion, holiday, branding, haying. She never wanted anyone slighted. She was famous for her homemade rolls. She was proud when her granddaughter, Anna, learned to make them and told her to call them Anna’s rolls, not Grandma’s.
Pat started up the library in Bondurant in the early 1960’s so that people would have access to books. She instigated the county roads being plowed all winter, in 1967, when she was pregnant with Lennie because she said she was not going to move into town to wait for him to be born like she had to her other winter babies. After that the county maintained the roads in Bondurant, all winter. Later in life, she took a job at the Jackson Hole Pendleton Shop, a high-end clothing store. She loved beautiful quality merchandise and enjoyed selling people clothing they looked sharp in. One of her friends told her recently before he knew her name, he referred to her as "the Classy Pendleton Lady." Granddaughter, Jenni, thanking her for teaching her how to dress classy. And her granddaughter-in law, Josephine, told her she wanted to have the kind of class she did. These comments made her day. She had an appreciation of quality in all things around her house and would rather go without than have what she called "junk."
The Green River Cattleman Association and Cattlewomen awarded her with the Lifetime Member Award and also Ranch Women of the Year Award. She was an integral part of the ranch receiving the Centennial Ranch Award. She served on the Board of Directors of the Wyoming LaBarge Oil Company for 27 years. Her McGinnis family had created this company many years ago and it is still active today. She traveled abroad on two different trips seeing England, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Wales. She was enriched by these adventures.
She loved the beauty around her. She loved the Hoback Canyon and told Katherine she fell in love with that canyon the first time she came through it. At that time the road was on the other side of the Hoback River. She loved the wildflowers, the autumn leaves, the wildlife, the song birds who flew in front of the kitchen window, the warmth from the kitchen wood stove she baked her most delicious food in.
The bond she created with her children and grandchildren of unconditional love was a gift that each of them will always have in their heart. She lived to see two great grandchildren, Daviel and Josiah (Joe, to her, after her father). She left behind for her family an example of how to love and how to live with integrity, honesty, forgiveness and acceptance. She will be missed by many friends as well as her 4 children - Kevin, Katherine, Colleen, Lennie; Grandchildren - Heidi, Walden, (Josephine), Anna, (Yancy), Jenni; and greatgrandchildren - Daviel and Little Joe.
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