Keillor wins restraining order against overly enthusiastic fan

"You could not have told me I would have fallen in so deep. ... It will be a pleasure just to want to feel the form and touch the hem ... Ahem. Goodness gracious. Sincerely Yours, -A."

This was among the rambling e-mails, letters and website postings from Amanda R. Campbell, a 43-year-old Georgia woman, to Garrison Keillor, host of the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." She also sent poems, letters, packages saturated in perfume, a petrified alligator head, dead beetles and other items.

She smoked cigarettes and left notes for Keillor on a neighbor's porch, Keillor said in an affidavit that asked a judge to issue a restraining order against the woman. She lurked in the bushes outside his St. Paul home early one morning in July, scaring his wife, the affidavit said. She refused to heed warnings to stay away from him and to stop sending packages and letters.

Finally, Keillor had had enough. On Oct. 11, he sought the restraining order against Campbell, and Ramsey County District Judge George Stephenson granted it the next day.

The order is in effect until Oct. 12, 2009, unless Campbell requests a hearing in 45 days. Phone calls to her home in Hawkinsville, Ga., were not returned Tuesday. Campbell has not been arrested or charged with any crime.

American Public Media, which distributes Keillor's show, released a short statement Tuesday: "Unfortunately, receiving unwanted (and intrusive) attention is sometimes part of being a radio celebrity."

In his affidavit, Keillor wrote that he first encountered Campbell last April 28 while greeting a line of fans after performing his radio show in Columbus, Ga.

"She struck me as odd and overly exuberant," he wrote.

In early May and June, overnight packages from Campbell "containing unusual and unwanted items" began arriving at Keillor's workplace in St. Paul.

Among the items were "dead beetles, mugs, t-shirts, rocks, marbles, magnets with [Campbell's] and my initials, manuscripts, poems and letters," Keillor wrote. "One package included oranges, which had rotted by the time they arrived at my office."

In July, a neighbor gave Keillor notes that had been left on the neighbor's front porch by Campbell, the affidavit said. "My wife became particularly upset when she was awakened by someone rustling around outside the house in the early morning," he wrote.

Campbell also used Keillor's work e-mail, which he doesn't use, and the e-mail of the show's musical director to post messages to the show's website, the affidavit said.

"This is going quite well," one said. "No watch dogs, please. Quietly waiting for answer to question. Form feeling anticipated. Leave msg. No email. Look for Baskin & Robbins buddha advertising."

Campbell sent numerous e-mails, some telling Keillor she loved him and wanted to move to the Twin Cities to be closer to him.

In one "harassing and completely inappropriate e-mail, dated August 15, 2007, she graphically described making love to me," Keillor wrote.

Campbell received the restraining order Monday and called the St. Paul Pioneer Press to state her case. In an article published Tuesday, she said she is a happily married woman. She does love Keillor, she said, but "It's transcendental love, that's all. Between a writer and a reader."

The affidavit said she sent two e-mails to Keillor in early October, saying that she planned to attend a live show in Baltimore on Oct. 13.

David O'Neill, marketing director for the show, contacted her and told her not to come. But she apparently tried to get in anyway. Police were called and ordered her to leave.

In his six-page affidavit, Keillor said "I believe that without a harassment restraining order, respondent will continue to contact and harass me both at work and home, and that respondent's behavior could potentially escalate to physical confrontation, violent behavior or public disturbances."

Keillor was not available to comment Tuesday.

Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551

Pat Pheifer • ppheifer@startribune.com