Gail Allen McGuire

Gail Allen Byrd McGuire, aged 88, died peacefully at her home on Saturday, March 1st, 2025. Gail was born to Andrew McCrory Byrd and Mamie Allen Byrd in Panama City, Florida, where she and her 3 brothers grew up on a farm. Gail attended school in Callaway just outside of Panama City and then attended Florida State University where she was a member of Delta Gamma Sorority and received her Bachelor of Science Degree in business education in 1958. After graduating from FSU, Gail returned to Panama City and taught public school for several years. In 1965 she met and married Captain Ronald McGuire, an Air Force pilot, and began the exciting, busy life of a military wife. With her husband and two children, she lived and travelled in Asia, Europe, and throughout the U.S. often taking the opportunity to ply her trade in education by teaching adult classes at several different military bases. Typical of military life, these postings often lasted only 2 or 3 years with Gail joking that the family moved so much during their military tenure due to her husband’s inability to hold down a job.

In 1975, life changed suddenly when her husband (by then Colonel McGuire) retired from the USAF after a cardiac irregularity ended his flying career. The McGuires “folded their tent” and moved to Tallahassee, where Ron took a job. Gail found work as a manager of Stanley Kaplan Education Center and later as an admissions counselor in a commercial college. However, for the most part, she happily described her job experience as mother and homemaker. Though Gail had thoroughly enjoyed the military life her family had lived up to then, the transition into the new, civilian life turned out well and afforded the children a hometown and a more stable school environment.

Gail quickly made new close friends to add to her now far-flung collection of military ones. As she always said, “life was good!” Their many long-distance friends often came to visit the McGuires in their new home in Tallahassee and Gail loved to entertain both her visiting guests and neighboring friends; she was known far and wide for her hospitality, her grace, and her culinary and cocktail-making skills. She and Ron never lost the travel bug they had caught during their military life, and they continued to love seeing the world, visiting their friends, returning to Europe, or cruising in many different waters. To escape the southern summers, they began returning annually to their beloved Blowing Rock, NC, where Gail would spend seemingly the entire vacation searching for the perfect rental for next year’s trip – when she wasn’t hosting friends she had convinced to come join them or (with any luck) local friends she had made. This love for travel is one of many gifts she leaves behind for her children.

Gail was predeceased by her older brother, Dr. Olest Carver (Carver) Byrd; her younger brother Andrew (Andy) McCrory Byrd Jr, his wife Patricia, and their son Andrew (Drew) McCrory Byrd III; and by her brother-in-law Kenneth McGuire and his wife Mercedes. Loved ones surviving her are her best friend and life partner of nearly 60 years, Ron; daughter, Robyn; son, Patrick (and his wife Hetal Desai); and granddaughters (whom she referred to as eldest, middlest and littlest angels) Chandler Downie, Laxmi McGuire, and Rani McGuire. Also left to mourn her loss are her baby brother Robert Byrd and his wife Sylvia; her sister-in-law Dorothy Byrd (wife of Carver); and three nieces and one nephew, Shelly Byrd (daughter of Andy), Wende Byrd Reynolds (daughter of Robert), and Alison McGuire Merritt(daughter of Kenneth), and Robert Clay (Clay) Byrd (son of Robert).

Gail was petite in stature, but a towering presence to her loved ones and the bedrock for her family and friends. She took great pride in being a hostess and went to great lengths to ensure that everyone in her charge (a category that sometimes seemed tenuous indeed) was well cared for. She will be very dearly remembered by all who knew and loved her.

In lieu of flowers or food, the family asks you make a donation to the City of Tallahassee Friends of Our Parks Foundation.

Gail will be sorely missed, but we will always love her to the moon and back.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, April 19, 2025 from 10:00AM-12:00PM at The Grove at Canopy, 2601 Crestline Road, Tallahassee, FL 32308. Guests are welcome to drop in anytime between the hours of 10AM-12:00PM to visit with the family and honor Gail’s tradition of Easter brunch. Please RSVP by April 11, 2025. The link to RSVP can be found below...

https://www.evite.com/event/0208SX6P44QLNQTSIEPQAKQB3JFB3I/