Reunion at Clark Atlanta University brings back school's oldest living graduate

Jet, June 13, 1994

Clark Atlanta University alummni, their friends and family recently came by the thousands to attend a historic reunion welcoming back the institution's oldest living graduate, 108-year-old Margaret Rose Campbelle.

The celebration also included Alexis Herman, another former grad who is now director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. Herman served as commencement speaker during the threeday reunion.

Campbelle, a 1914 graduate who has long wanted to return to her alma mater, was the guest of honor at the commencement ceremony which was held in the Georgia Dome.

Born in 1886, the daughter of a former slave, Campbelle earned her degree in education. She later taught in the public schools of Florida.

In addition, she says: "I taught reading in rural Tennessee schools, many of them one-room buildings. I would travel from site to site, teaching reading to the students."

Campbelle now has five grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. As she looks back on 108 years, she says her life has been very blessed.