Sister of Mercy Elizabeth (Betty) Campbell, known for her lifelong insistence on and advocacy for the dignity and human rights of every person, died in San Antonio, Texas on January 18, 2026. Her death was sudden, the result of a brain hemorrhage. She was 91 years of age, a woman of faith committed as a Sister of Mercy for 70 years to the service of the poor. Day after day, she lived her chosen motto: My God and My All.
Born in Wisconsin and raised in Iowa, Sister Betty was the youngest of William and Caroline [O’Neil] Campbell’s 13 children. Influenced by two brothers who were doctors, she decided to become a nurse. In 1955 Betty entered the Sisters of Mercy, took her lifelong vows in 1961, and served briefly in two Mercy hospitals in the U.S. before accepting a call (1962) to missionary work in Peru.
Director of nursing and hospital administrator at Madres de la Misericordia in Sicuani, Peru, Sister Betty not only offered her professional skills and compassionate care but also listened and learned from the people she’d come to help. Theirs was a dignity and a culture that called her to new perspectives about missionary work.
