Linda Gail Kirkham

Linda Gail Kirkham of Dallas, Texas joined the heavenly saints on March 23, three months shy of her 76th birthday. She passed peacefully in her home, in the loving company of her husband, daughters, and son.

Gail was born on June 23, 1949 in San Angelo, Texas, to Clark and Grace (Johnson) Stroud. An only child, she was raised in a warm, nurturing environment by adoring parents. The family lived in Sonora, Texas during the very early years of her life and subsequently moved permanently to San Angelo. Gail attended public schools in San Angelo, graduating from San Angelo Central High School in 1967. She graduated in the top 5% of a class of over 700, was a National Honor Society officer, and was the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions – both academic and personal.

After graduating from high school Gail attended Angelo State University for one year. She subsequently transferred to the University of Texas in Austin, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in two and a half years, graduating with honors in December, 1970.

Following her graduation, Daryl and Gail were married in San Angelo, honoring a promise made to her father that she would complete her college education prior to taking that step.

After graduating Gail was hired by the Texas State School for the Deaf in Austin, for a short time in an administrative position and ultimately as a faculty member teaching high school students. During Gail’s four year tenure at TSD Daryl completed undergraduate school, served an active duty military tour, and completed graduate school. At that point Daryl and Gail moved to Dallas, where Daryl began what proved to be a long career in banking. Kelly was born in April, 1975, shortly after the move back to Dallas, Stephen in February, 1978, and Katy in May, 1983.

Following the return to Dallas, Gail’s focus for the ensuing 23 years was raising three extremely gifted and active children, managing the affairs and budget of a growing household, and somehow finding time to volunteer as a docent at the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science at Fair Park - - a seemingly impossible combination of tasks at which she consistently excelled deftly and gracefully.

After Katy reached high school age, Gail followed her affinity for educational endeavors to Eastfield College, where she spent the next decade teaching technical writing, teaching developmental reading and writing, and serving as an admissions advisor. Many of her students at Eastfield were people for whom English was a second and newly acquired language, a characteristic of the position from which she derived particular satisfaction. She developed many lasting relationships and friendships during her time at Eastfield, with both students and other faculty members. She always looked back on her time at Eastfield very fondly.

Avocationally, Gail enjoyed a wide range of interests, especially artistic interests. She was to the very end an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction (with a particular affinity for mysteries, notably the work of Agatha Christie). Much of her nonfiction reading was poetry, which she loved with a passion. She pursued dramatic reading while in high school and college and for several years after. She was a talented and accomplished dancer from a young age, including teaching tap and jazz dancing for a time as a teenager in San Angelo. Her love for dancing stayed with her for the entirety of her life.

She found a new outlet for her creative talents when she took up painting as an adult. Her time painting with similarly-oriented friends at the studio they all shared in the Cedars area of South Dallas was some of the most fulfilling of her life, and the relationships created thereby some of her most dear.

Her creativity extended to areas perhaps less dramatic but nonetheless equally as meaningful for her and for those she touched in this fashion - - such as cooking, or creating and constructing original Halloween costumes each year for her children.

One of Gail’s greatest sources of pleasure was travel. She approached, planned and enjoyed family trips with a delightful sense of adventure and wonder - - road trips to the beach, to the mountains to ski, for horseback riding, for hiking, camping with other families in Beavers Bend … she never lost her enthusiasm for seeing and learning about other places. Travel abroad - - with her family, with other families, with the dear friends with whom she painted - - provided some of her life’s most magical moments as well as the inspiration for some of her own most beautiful works of art.

Gail was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2013. Her life was saved by a lung transplant in 2014. After having been told her life expectancy was 4-5 years, due to the wonderful care of the team at the Heart & Lung Transplant unit at UT Southwestern Medical Center, in tandem with her own discipline and awe-inspiring courage, she survived for almost an additional 11 years - - thereby giving her family a gift the value of which cannot possibly be overestimated.

Gail Kirkham was a Renaissance woman, an aesthete with a very practical approach to life - a contradiction in terms, perhaps, but a fully accurate description nevertheless. The legacy she leaves her family and friends is one of deep abiding love, joy, and a zest for life. We will miss her every day and will hold her close in our hearts forever. We thank God for the gift of her life.

Gail is survived by her husband Daryl, to whom she was married for 55 years and with whom she shared a story book romance dating to when they were both 13; daughter Kelly of Dallas and son-in-law AJ; son Stephen of Lockhart and daughter-in-law Jennifer of Austin; daughter Katy of Austin and son-in-law Jacob; grandsons Kai and Jack; granddaughters Grace, Lola, and Evangeline Rose; and many cherished friends.

A memorial service will be held at Wilshire Baptist Church (4316 Abrams Road, 75214) at 11:00 AM on Saturday, April 5. A “celebration of life” reception will follow at Times Ten Cellars (6324 Prospect Avenue, 75214) at 1:00 PM on that same date.

In lieu of flowers Gail’s family requests that donations be directed in Gail’s name to the UT Southwestern Heart and Lung Transplant Program.