Gayle Ake

Gayle Ake, age 82 of Harper, passed away Wednesday, July 25, 2018 in San Antonio.\r\n\r\nAny visit to the home of my grandmother would leave any visitor impressed with the sheer number of photographs stretching back generations and running down many branches of our family tree. The names and notable stories of each subject within could be regaled by heart by this woman who invested so much time and committed her considerable memory to these people who built our family.\r\n\r\nSadly, the beautiful woman who was my grandmother has joined those images that came before and that she so purposefully guarded and displayed. And writing this now, I will try to carry on her tradition by telling you a small part of her story.\r\n\r\nGayle Welda Egglessfield was born into a proud Canadian family in May of 1936, the fourth of five daughters to Jack and Gladys Egglessfield in Sault Saint Marie, Ontario.\r\n\r\nAfter finishing high school and attending a year of business school she was hired as a legal secretary and was part of a new wave of working women who earned their own livelihood in the 1950's.\r\n\r\nIn 1957, she met Gene R. Ake who was stationed in nearby Michigan with the U.S. Army. Three months later they married.\r\n\r\nGayle is survived by her husband, two sons, Gene Ake Jr. and Robert Ake, six grandchildren, and a great granddaughter. She chose to give up her career after marriage and begin this family.\r\n\r\nAs a U.S. citizen, she began to serve her new country in a way that few of us have been asked. No stranger to the military, her father was a combat veteran of World War I, Gayle led her family as her husband, both sons, and a grandson deployed 11 times collectively over half a century in service to our nation's wars; this included 80 months of her husband and sons being in active combat zones. There was never a woman so proud of the men she raised and the country she lived in.\r\n\r\nIn the midst of life's events, she truly experienced our world as she traveled to 36 different countries, living in Europe and Asia. Her thirst for travel was life long, as she took her last transatlantic trip three years ago at the age of 80.\r\n\r\nAt her heart, Gayle was a strong Christian woman whose values were true and indicative of the people whose company she kept.\r\n\r\nOnly pictures are left now of Gayle in our home. Her voice will never again come eager and clear (still very Canadian) over the phone on a holiday or chat to catch up. Her family has received all of her embraces that she had to give. But her great granddaughter and future great grandchildren will know her by sight and by the events of her life. She has passed the torch to those she prepared well and who are forever in the shadow of the example she set. She once told me that "the pain of losing someone is usually worth the prize of having known them". I don't know if she is the author of that phrase, but I agree. We love you Grandma and goodbye.\r\n\r\nServices will be at 10 a.m. Monday, July 30, 2018 at Wild Ride Ministries in Harper officiated by Mike Weaver. Burial will follow in the Noxville Cemetery in Kimble County. \r\n\r\nThe family invites you to send condolences at www.grimesfuneralchapels.com by selecting the "Send Condolences" link.\r\n\r\nFuneral arrangements are entrusted to Grimes Funeral Chapels of Kerrville. \r\n\r\n\r\n