Published: October 15, 2008 12:16 am      

Homecoming to remember

Kristen Pass featured on national news broadcast

Dr. David and Peggy Campbell love to be involved with their grandchildren and their lives, and just last week, made a very special trip for a cherished granddaughter.

Kristen Pass, 18, has Down syndrome. She is a senior in high school, and she and younger sister Kendall, a freshman, are daughters of the Campbells’ daughter, Carolyn Pass. The girls’ father, J.T. Pass, died two years ago.

The family moved to Aledo when Kristen was in third grade. Friday night, Kristen was named homecoming queen, and escorted by her grandfather.

“It is such a great bunch of kids up there,” Dr. Campbell said. “It was wonderful what they did. I went up on Monday, because they still have a parade like we used to do. I drove the convertible Kristin rode in. Toward the end of the parade, she said, ‘Wouldn’t my dad have been proud of me?’

“At halftime, it was very heartwarming when they called her name,” he continued. “There were very few dry eyes in the stadium.”

Campbell said Kristen has made many visits to Corsicana through the years, and they’re always out on the go when she’s here.

“A lot of local people know her, because she doesn’t meet many strangers,” he said. “When she meets you, her little hand pops out and she says, ‘Hi! I’m Kristen Pass.’”

Nearly the entire Campbell family was at Aledo High School stadium that night to watch Kristen receive her crown. Dr. Campbell said she had been looking forward to her senior year of high school all summer. During part of the summer, Kristen worked as a junior camp counselor at Camp of the Pines in East Texas. She also works a couple of evenings a week at the Railhead, a local restaurant in Aledo.

“She has a strong work ethic,” Campbell said. “Her future is still in the planning stages, but she knows everyone in town, and unlike me, she can remember their names.”

Campbell said the festivities lasted well into the night that evening, though he personally bowed out about 1 a.m.

Since being named homecoming queen, Kristen has been featured in the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and was featured on Channel 5 news, as well as ABC World News with Charles Gibson. Campbell said he’d heard from former patients of his from as far away as Midland who were tickled about Kristen’s crowning.

“When they called her name that night,” Dr. Campbell said, “She smiled all over her whole little body.”

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On the Web: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=6025166&page=1

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Deanna Brown may be contacted via e-mail at deanna@corsicanadailysun.com