(This story has been updated and now includes funeral details)
Rita Campbell never scored a goal or made a big save. She never coached or owned a junior team and you won't find her name on any trophy.
But you would be hard pressed to find a more recognizable face when it comes to hockey in the Royal City.
For 66 years Ms. Campbell worked as an usher and greeter at the old Memorial Gardens and later at the Sleeman Centre, known to many as 'The Pin Lady' for the hundreds of pins she collected and displayed on her jacket and later her Guelph Storm scarf.
Ms. Campbell died Friday of a heart attack. She was 88.
"It was sudden and sad," said her nephew Lou Embro Jr.
"She got so much from the hockey community in Guelph, had a great connection with Guelph Minor Hockey. Hockey was a huge part of her life," Embro Jr. said.
Visitation will take place at Gilbert McIntyre Funeral Home at 1099 Gordon St. Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Funeral mass will be held Thursday at Basilica of Our Lady at 10 a.m.
"It's a great loss for the city. She was recognized as the the Pin Lady. At the old rink they renamed the entrance 'Campbell's Corridor' and I think that says a lot about what she meant to this community," her nephew said.
Impeccably dressed with not a hair out of place, she was the warm face that greeted fans as they entered the rink, usually with a "How you doin' hon?"
If a kid didn't have enough money to get in. Sometimes Rita turned a blind eye and let them sneak in.
She was also the law.
She scolded generations of children for acting up in the hallway, dealt with patrons that had one too many, broke up fights, confiscated booze and even waded in when an on-ice fracas spilled over into the stands.
One of 14 children, Ms. Campbell got her start as a teenager working as an usher at the old Odeon Theatre in Downtown Guelph before moving over to Memorial Gardens when it opened in 1948.
Over the years she rubbed shoulders with countless celebrities, billeted numerous players who she called her "boys" and got to know the countless scouts that came through the door by first name and who they worked for. One of her favourites was legendary Toronto Maple Leaf George Armstrong.
When she stopped working for the city, she joined the Guelph Storm staff as an ambassador for games.
Ms. Campbell retired in 2012 and for the past few years was living in Font Hill to be closer to her daughter.
“I warned kids all the time that they’d better stop running around and carrying on or I’d kick them out, but I can’t ever remember kicking one out,” Campbell told GuelphToday's Tony Saxon in an interview for the now defunct Guelph Mercury back in 2012.
She was at the rink night in and night out. Hockey, roller skating, wrestling, home shows, stag and does in the licensed Attic hall at the rink. She even had her own set of keys to the rink at one point.
“The wrestling fans were the worst," she said in 2012. "Those crowds were really rowdy."
Her late husband Gord was a salesman and spent a lot of time on the road. She found her own second home at the rink.
“I never thought I was somebody, just another person there,” she once said.
“I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t enjoy it. I loved it, I truly loved it.”
