Connie Cameron, editor, storyteller and social critic

Connie Cameron, equal parts storyteller and social critic as editor and publisher of The Seattle Medium newspaper, died Monday (July 28) in Seattle from a heart attack. She was 51.

A Georgia native, Mrs. Cameron, known in print and on air as Connie Bennett Cameron, was among the first group of black students to integrate the high school in her hometown of Waynesboro.

The racism hurled at her that first year, recalled her older brother Chris H. Bennett of Seattle, rooted her passion for taking on issues she felt adversely impacted African Americans.

"She was always telling the truth about what was happening to our children and to our families," said James Kelly, executive director of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.

"There was fire and brimstone in her writing but you wouldn't know it if you sat her there (to look at her)," said Carl Mack, president of the Seattle NAACP. "It certainly beckons the cliché that the pen is mightier than the sword."

Mrs. Cameron was born Sept. 9, 1951, the fourth of nine children. Mother Willie Mae Anderson was a dietitian. Father Albert Anderson Sr. drove a cement truck.

Upon graduating from Savannah State University in Georgia in 1973 with degrees in English and broadcast journalism, she declined to accept a job doing the weather for a TV station in Texas. Instead, she followed her older brother Chris out West where he had founded The Seattle Medium in 1970.

Its blue office on Jackson Street in Seattle's Central Area now houses the largest African-American-owned and -operated communications company in the Pacific Northwest. Mrs. Cameron helped to oversee publications in Seattle, Tacoma and Portland, penning editorials and "poetic thoughts" that didn't hesitate to criticize.

Described as a deeply spiritual person, Mrs. Cameron, a member of Seattle's Mount Zion Baptist Church, always regarded religion as the bedrock of her black community. So in recent years, witnessing wrongdoing that spanned denominations, Mrs. Cameron composed a series of poems called "Preacher Man." Without naming names, she reproached in verse and created a buzz.

"She made a lot of people uncomfortable because she hit deep and hard," her brother recalled. The series was followed by another, called "Brother Man." The poems prompted religious and community leaders to wonder if she was, in fact, writing about them — and that was the point, Mack believed.

"I think she wanted everyone to think, 'Is this me?' " Mack said.

A voracious reader and aspiring dramatist, Mrs. Cameron was the sort of writer who'd wake up after midnight and work until dawn, said her husband of 24 years, Sam Cameron, a Seattle architect.

She had had opportunities to leave the black press, her husband said. But she was fiercely loyal to the family business. What began as a summer volunteer job at the newspaper turned into an award-winning journalism career. Most recently, she received an award for editorials from the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

Every Friday, alongside her nephew, Chris B. Bennett of Seattle, Mrs. Cameron held court at McGowan's restaurant in Renton for her radio talk show. Guests included community notables, as well as regular folk.

"The little person never had trouble getting media attention," said Elma Horton, a resource counselor at the Seattle Vocational Institute (SVI). "She loved her people and her community."

Mrs. Cameron's weekly poem was published on Wednesdays and then she'd read it on air. Her most recent poem was a commencement speech delivered to SVI. It is, those who knew her say, a lot like the author: inspirational, witty, sometimes blunt.

You have a job with a future/And a future with a job/The foundation has been laid/The debt has been paid/And now it's up to you/Ride Tall in the Saddle ... Let's Ride!

Mrs. Cameron is survived by her mother; daughter Jior Cameron of Seattle; son Jason Cameron of Seattle; five sisters; two brothers; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mount Zion, 1634 19th Ave. in Seattle. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to CBE Charities Inc./Cameron Children's Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 22047, Seattle, WA 98122-0047.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com