Candy McCampbell, Tennessean business news pioneer and role model, dies at 78

Yahoo

23-04-2025

Candace "Candy" McCampbell, a beloved, respected journalist and pioneer in business news coverage at The Tennessean for three decades, died April 23. She was 78.
"Candy was an outstanding journalist and a wonderful friend," said former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, a Tennessean police reporter in the 1970s and a lifelong Middle Tennessee resident. "She was beloved, trusted and admired by everyone who worked with her."
McCampbell, who joined The Tennessean straight out of college in 1968, became business news editor in 1984 after stints as a features writer, city editor, real estate editor and personal finance writer.
As business editor, McCampbell greatly beefed up The Tennessean's coverage of business news in Middle Tennessee and served as a role model for young reporters, especially women, her former colleagues said.
"Candy was a consummate professional. She had great sources and was respected by those sources," longtime Tennessean colleague Frank Gibson said. "She had a great sense of humor, but when it came to business, she was very serious. There was no playing around."
Longtime former Tennessean copy editor Jennifer Goode Stevens said she looked up to McCampbell.
"[She] was a smart, savvy, outspoken woman who had no qualms about working in a male-dominated news genre. She knew the ins and outs of the Nashville business landscape, who to call and then who to call when that first person was reluctant," Stevens said.
"I was barely 21 when I arrived at The Tennessean," Stevens said. "Candy showed me from the very beginning of my career that success was possible, and that you didn't have to give up being a nice person to have it."
Former longtime Tennessean executive editor Frank Sutherland said McCampbell was passionate about whatever she did in the newsroom.
"She was inclusive, reaching out to people to bring them together," Sutherland said. "Her colleagues valued her counsel, whether as a reporter or editor. And she demanded honesty and truth.
"Her passions made her the superb, respected journalist she was and a valued friend."
When McCampbell retired in 2002 after 33 year at The Tennessean, she said the most memorable story she worked on was the 1982 collapse of a statewide chain of banks owned by brothers Jake and C.H. Butcher, both later convicted of fraud.
"That was the wildest one."
The story she was proudest of: Helping break the news in 1985 that Saturn car manufacturer would open a plant in Tennessee.
Her personality showed clearly in that 2002 interview when she was asked how she saw Nashville's business environment changing in the next 20 years.
'Honey, if I knew that,' she said, 'I wouldn't be sitting here…. I would have been in New York with my crystal ball making lots and lots of money.'
McCampbell grew up the oldest of eight siblings in the Fountain City section of Knoxville. She earned a degree in 1968 from the University of Tennessee, where she served as editor of the school newspaper.
McCampbell started working for The Tennessean the same year she graduated.
After retiring, McCampbell volunteered with the Frist Art Museum and Second Harvest Food Bank, and, a voracious reader, she participated in several book clubs. McCampbell often was spotted walking around her Belle Meade neighborhood chatting with neighbors and petting their dogs.
McCampbell also wrote some freelance journalism articles and spent time visiting with a plethora of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.
She is survived by those who called her 'aunt' and by all seven of her siblings, her brothers, Joe McCampbell (Vicki) of Bartlett, Tenn., Harrison McCampbell (Linda) of Brentwood, and Jim McCampbell (Jennifer) of Knoxville; and her sisters, Cindy McCampbell Cross of Choteau, Montana, Martha Lou McCampbell of Maryville, Tenn., Rosemary McCampbell of Seymour, Tenn., and Lee Smith of Greensboro, N.C.
Funeral arrangements have not been set as of the posting of this story.
The family suggests donations to the Frist Art Museum and Second Harvest Food Bank to honor McCampbell's memory.
Reach Brad Schmitt at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Candy McCampbell, former Tennessean business news journalist, dies