Gail Deutsch

Gail Cooper Deutsch, 87, formerly of Annapolis, Maryland, passed away peacefully on November 1, 2025, at Gilchrist Center, Towson, Maryland. She is survived by her daughter, Alexandra Deutsch, and granddaughter Jane Alexandra McKee. Her daughter, Ruth Ann Deutsch and her husband, Charles Deutsch, pre-deceased her. She treasured her relationships with her son-in-law Kyle W. Cunningham as well as her closeness with Elihu John McKee, and Shridar Nimmigadda who she always referred to as her “my other sons-in-laws.” The great love of her life was her husband, Charlie, and she always remarked that it was “love at first dinner” rather than first sight. She often wrote that her granddaughter, Jane, was the greatest treasure of her life and she viewed her friends as family throughout her life.

Born in Rahway, New Jersey on October 23, 1938, she was the daughter of Ruth Ann Steckroth Cooper and Archibald Alexander Cooper and grew up in Colonia, New Jersey. Named after the actress Gale Storm, she was an unforgettable presence and left her mark wherever she went. Her life was built upon a devotion to her family and friends, her passion for ballet, and her love of teaching and art.

Throughout her life, her unstinting generosity to those around her remained central to all she did. Whether to family or friends, she gave herself without reserve, always thinking of the perfect gift or the special gesture she could make. If you complimented her several times on a piece of jewelry or some other little object, she would either find one just like it for you or give you hers. Christmas was her favorite holiday, a time when she could lavish presents on everyone near and dear to her. Always the life of a party, she embraced every festive occasion, still attending happy hours just weeks before her 87th birthday.

Her love of dance began at age 6 when a neighbor suggested to her mother that she take ballet with her daughter in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She recounted that her first ballet teacher asked her mother to buy “black toe shoes” for her and insisted her young pupils went on point immediately. Years later, she described this teacher as “terrible,” but she was determined to continue dancing even when her parents struggled to pay for the many classes she would eventually attend. At 13, she went to New York City by herself to study with Thalia Mara. Mara, who wrote 11 books on ballet, awakened Gail’s awareness of proper technique and forever influenced her understanding of classical ballet. During a summer intensive in Manhattan, she studied with Authur Mahoney, Hilda Butsova, and Boris Romanoff. By 14, she began teaching ballet in her parents’ basement. Her father, a master carpenter, converted the space with barres and two large mirrors, eventually building a separate entrance and a waiting room as the business quickly grew. In 1952, she remembered that she charged $1 per class, had 50 students, and often remarked that she “made more money than many of her friend’s fathers” by the time she finished high school. Despite teaching ballet, tap, character, and jazz, she was an Honor Roll Student at Woodbridge High School and involved in many clubs and theatrical productions.

Upon graduating from high school, she headed to New York City to attend the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School and put her dancing and teaching aside to become an executive secretary at Bourjois, the perfume company best known for "Evening in Paris”. She always referred to this glamorous period of her life as her “pommy days” and recalled the exquisite clothes, hats, and gloves she wore to work and the long cocktail lunches that never stopped her from typing 100 words a minute. In 1961, she welcomed her daughter Ruth Ann Deutsch to the world, eventually returning the New Jersey and opening the Colonia School of Dance. In 1969, she and several other dance teachers from the New Jersey Federation of Dance, founded the New Jersey Dance Theater Guild and established their own syllabus. That syllabus, based on strict Russian training, was designed to evolve dancers in their technique and knowledge of the art. She always recalled when she, Verne Fowler, and Yvette Cohen, all dancing teachers from the Federation, traveled to New York City to meet Dr. Alfredo Corvino, one of the most influential ballet teachers of the 20th century. Their vision was to create a company guided by Maestro Corvino as Director, allowing promising young dancers in their schools to experience the highest level of training and performance. This led to large-scale productions of the Nutcracker, one of the highlights of her life. Working with Marcella Corvino, the Maestro’s wife, she refined the art of costume design for the ballet, learning how to expertly make tutus as well as headpieces. She always considered those years as some of the happiest in her life.

She would go on designing costumes for decades, costuming Verne Fowler’s Nutcracker in the 1980s, productions of The William Chaison Dance Theatre of New Jersey, Inc. and eventually assisting with the costumes for Ballet Theater of Maryland. In the late 1970s, she turned her remarkable skills in design to creating couture wedding gowns, taking great pride in using the finest imported fabrics and appliqueing and hand-beading French lace with seed pearls on several of her creations. She was selective about the projects she undertook, always seeking a challenge and pushing herself to design costumes for modern dance later in her career and even studying 18th century dress construction in Williamsburg, Virginia so that she could make historically-accurate costumes for her daughter, Alexandra, and her dear friend and performer Scotti Preston.

At 41, she returned to school to finish her B.A. at Kean College, now Kean University, in Union, New Jersey. She went on to attain two master's degrees, graduating from Fairleigh Dickinson in 1987, and attaining a second degree in Cultural History from Kean in the early 90s. Although her involvement in the dance world never stopped, she pursued a career in higher education, working for the Office of Assessment at Kean University and eventually becoming an Adjunct Professor in Cultural Studies. Her life-long love and fascination with art that began in 7th grade blossomed during that period. She adored her years of teaching at a college level and particularly embraced the first-generation college students she encountered. Many of her students had never had the opportunity to visit museums, the ballet, theater, or the symphony, so she created bus trips to New York City to expose them to the arts. For her students, these trips were transformational, and she stayed connected with many of them long after they graduated. Even after retirement, she would occasionally lecture about the Pre-Raphaelite artists whom she had studied as a graduate student.

In 2001, upon the birth of her granddaughter, Jane, Gail and her husband, Charlie, moved from New Jersey to Heritage Harbor in Annapolis, Maryland. There, Gail embraced every new opportunity that came her way. She immediately joined New Annapolitans, quickly becoming involved with their programming and inspiring a group of friends that called themselves the “Mes Amies.” These lively, like-minded women gathered regularly to drink Champagne and have little local adventures, often dining at Les Folies, the now-closed French restaurant in Annapolis. By 2002, Gail became involved with the Ballet Theater of Maryland. She seized on the chance to become a supporter of the company under the leadership of dear friend Dianna Cuatto who reflected that she was “the best board member I ever had...” Whether assisting with costumes, running galas, supporting the dancers, or serving as a long-time trustee, Gail found a new family at Ballet Theatre of Maryland. She could often be seen standing at the doorway of the studio, Diet Coke in hand, watching the dancers practice and attending every performance, sometimes two in one day.

Wherever Gail went, people remembered her. Fiercely chic, her fashion influenced those around her throughout her life. She instilled this deep love of fashion in her daughter and granddaughter and will always be remembered for her beauty, meticulous appearance, and natural elegance. In her later years as a devoted member of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis, she and her close friend Jean Philips started wearing hats to church. She used to say, “We started a trend and now even the priest’s wife is wearing a hat!”

Her lasting presence remains with her family and friends, the students she taught, and the communities she impacted. Her greatest influence can be seen in her daughter, a former ballet dancer, who works in museums and is a fashion historian, and her granddaughter in Chicago whom she instilled with her love of art, fashion, and new adventures, her unforgettable wit, fierce independence, and her unflinching generosity. She was an indomitable, dancing spirit to her last days and, as her best friend, Lee Irving remarked, “There are too many adjectives” to describe Gail.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her honor can be made to the Gail Cooper Deutsch Memorial Fund that benefits the Ballet Theater of Maryland: https://www.balletmaryland.org/gail-cooper-deutsch-memorial-fund

Her funeral will be held at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland on Monday, November 10, 2025, at 2 PM, followed by a private committal ceremony at St. Anne’s Cemetery, and a reception at a private home.