Rebecca Kaye Sheffer-Campbell-Salmon

Rebecca "Becky" Kaye Sheffer-Campbell-Salmon, 61, of Soldiers Grove, WI gained her wings Friday, December 27, 2024, at her home surrounded by her family. She fought a long hard battle with pancreatic cancer and she has finally won the battle against the evil disease because she is no longer sick and is now pain free. Pancreatic cancer did not win and died when she died! Yes, it took her hair and body but it never once took her spirit, soul, or her willingness to keep fighting and live as long as humanly possible.

She was born August 12, 1963, to Donald and Judy (Fryar)Sheffer in Kenosha, WI. She was adopted, as a toddler, by her paternal grandparents, after her biological mother Judy passed away, when Rebecca was l year and 2 days old. Glenn and Gladys (Spears) Campbell raised Becky until she moved out of the family's home in La Crosse as a teenager. She grew up and attended Hamilton Elementary, Lincoln Junior High, and Central High School all in La Crosse. Her childhood wasn't the "ideal" childhood but she always was a survivor and always looked forward to and had plans for the future. She had a very confusing way of talking about her family and how she was related to those people. If you really knew her, you would know what she was talking about and could follow her, if you didn't know her very well you would just give her a blank stare and have her start completely over and go very slow explaining all the way through the conversation. And even after that you may not have totally understood her. She married very young and had 2 children from that marriage. Nathan Gander and Shannon (Gander) Russell. She divorced her first husband after 14 years of marriage. She then found the true love of her life Richard (Rick) Salmon. Rick willingly stepped up to be Becky's children's father figure they needed. The children, being the ages they were, didn't like it much at that given moment but they eventually adjusted. Rick and Becky bought a house together, became a bigger family by adding one more child, Kayelee (Salmon) Napp, and were married on their property on May 13, 2000. Family was very important to her and she always put her family first before anything. Being the dedicated and loving mother, it almost cost her a couple of jobs, but like she would always say when threatened to be fired "I was looking for a job when I got this one" and would stay home and take care of a sick child or go to the child's school event without hesitation.

Becky never moved back to La Crosse after she left. She never was a "city girl" or a "girly girl" as far as that goes. She was a Tomboy all the way. She loved being outside in nature. She loved going to the races in West Salem with her Grandpa when she was younger. Loved to help her Grandpa work on cars or whatever project he had going on from fixing a lawn mower to building something from whatever pieces of lumber and plywood he had laying around from a previous project. Her Grandma wasn't really happy with any of those things that her Grandpa and her did together because it wasn't "lady like" she would always say, but Grandpa was pretty creative on what to say to Grandma to try to keep the peace.

Becky was a mother and grandma to more than just her biological family. When her children were growing up the house always had more children in it than who actually lived there. There are way too many names to list, but they know who they are and still called her either Mom or Grandma. Even her nieces and nephews from her previous marriage still called her Aunt Becky and she absolutely loved that.

Becky wore many hats, sometimes too many, and worked at many jobs from the time she was a teenager until cancer, chemo, and radiation decided she couldn't work a full- time job or even any of her part-time jobs anymore. As a teenager in La Crosse, she babysat a lot of children. She also delivered newspapers, worked at her friend’s parents bar by stocking the beer coolers and cleaning the bar on Sundays, and worked at A&W for a very brief period. After she moved to the Soldiers Grove area and was married to her first husband, she started working at Advance Transformer in Boscobel at age 17 and quit at age 33. She also worked in the tobacco fields for multiple tobacco farmers. After she divorced her first husband, she started her bartending "career."  Starting with Chubs in Boaz, Dayton Hills in Richland Center, Michael's Pub in Gays Mills and Tazzee's Wonder Bar in Soldiers Grove (which every bar has a new owner/name or is no longer a bar). She worked for Showen Companies in Gays Mills for 5 years doing work for whatever company she was assigned to work at that day. She ended her working years by working for Passages in Richland Center for 8 years and bartending at Desperados Wonder Bar in Soldiers Grove for 3 years.

Becky volunteered for many different things. She was a Girl Scout Leader for about 25 years total. She was a Co-leader with her oldest daughter Shannon's troop, then the Leader of her youngest daughter Kayelee's troop from Daisy to Ambassador, and then a Co-Leader again with her oldest daughter Shannon for Becky's granddaughter and Shannon's daughter Jenna's troop. She was a Nationally Registered and State licensed EMT and volunteered on area ambulance services. Ocooch Mountain EMS in Gays Mills since 2005 until the time of her death and North Crawford Rescue in Soldiers Grove since 2008 until the time of her death and was an active member of Readstown EMS for about 3 years. If someone needed help with an event and would ask her, she didn't know how to say "no". She helped with many fundraising events for the EMS, the communities close to her, and for people and/or families that needed help through their life changing event. She was also known for giving many "safe rides" home from bars and made sure many people made it home safe. She was a trained storm spotter and a notary. She continued with Passages as a volunteer to continue helping people the way she loved to do.

She loved to go to Wednesday and Thursday night pool league and pool tournaments with Rick and the team. She never played the game much but could if pushed or heard a guy say "I can beat her, she's just a girl!" They would soon find out what kind of "girl" she was and usually were not very happy losing to that "girl". She loved animals. She was nicknamed the animal whisperer by quite a few people because animals that usually didn't like people would come right to her or she could get them to come to her eventually. She loved to try any craft there was. You name it she'd try it. She loved the challenge. Her all-time absolute favorite hobby she had was photography. If anyone has been to her house and seen all the photo albums or grew up with any of her children you know all about the camera she always had flashing. And then cell phones came out with cameras, what a game changer that was for her!! When her and Rick did their "Road Trips" to either the North Shore of Minnesota or the U.P. of Michigan it was nothing for her to take over 700+ photos on every trip no matter how many times they had been to the same place already, she always took more photos.

Becky is survived by the love of her life, partner in crime, road trip bestie, best friend, and husband Rick; a son Nathan (Shannon Collins) Gander of Gays Mills, WI; two daughters, Shannon (Michael) Russell of Viola, WI and Kayelee (Cody) Napp of Stitzer, WI; seven grandchildren: Lance, Verralynn and Hayden Gander, Jeremy and Jenna Russell, Brynlee and Aubree Napp; her "chosen parents" Roy and Wanda Davidson; along with many, many other in-laws (and out-laws), close friends, and relatives. It would just be very confusing to list them all as either biological, legal or just plain chosen by Becky as a relative.

Becky was preceded in death by her biological parents; paternal grandparents that adopted and raised her; father-in-law Lyle Salmon; and numerous other friends and relatives that were all gone too soon.

Family is hosting a Celebration of Life on Saturday, January 11, 2025, at 3:00 p.m. at the American Legion Post 220,103 Legion Drive, Soldiers Grove, WI. Per Becky's wishes she did not want a traditional visitation or funeral.  She wanted to be cremated and to have her family and friends gather for a Celebration of Life (Huge Party) in her honor. We encourage everyone to wear jeans and tie-dyed or bright colors or at the very least something purple as this was Becky's favorite color since childhood. Also please feel free to share a personal story or memory about Becky with her family. The afternoon will be filled with music, memories, food, and of course photographs to pay tribute to Becky's life.

Roth Family Cremation Center and Funeral Services is assisting the family.

To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store.