About Gayle
If you knew Gayle, you knew she loved fiercely, lived fully, and did it all with grace. We want to share her story with you here.
Gayle’s Adventurous Beginning
Gayle Ann Lind Kipp passed away peacefully and surrounded by family on April 26th in El Paso. Born in Denver on April 17, 1943, she moved to El Paso with her parents Ellen (Elizabeth) and Theodore R. Lind as a child and graduated from Austin High School in 1960. She attended Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, for a year before returning to El Paso to graduate from Texas Western University with a degree in Education. During her sophomore year, Gayle met her future husband William Kipp, who was enamored with her intelligence, infectious laugh and her white ‘61 Thunderbird convertible. Gayle carried William through their Math of Finance class and joined him for a first date at the Oasis Drive-In on Mesa Street one cool November evening. Gayle taught fourth graders in Denver before marrying William at Asbury United Methodist Church on August 5th, 1966, with Barbara Roland as her maid of honor.
Rattlesnake and Cabezas de Toro
Always game to try something challenging and new, city-girl Gayle moved with her new husband to the John T. Muir Ranch outside of Lordsburg, New Mexico, and raised children Mary and Bill to teenage years before daughter Kassidee accidentally blessed the family. Gayle broadened her considerable culinary skills to include excellent flat red enchiladas, beef tacos, and once, to win a bet with Bill, a fresh rattlesnake. In May and October, Gayle cooked for the roundup cowboys who called her homemade tortillas ‘cabezas de toro’ due to their non-traditional shape. Gayle was a leader in the Lordsburg Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi service sorority (her enthusiastic spark, encouragement and laughter were legendary), chaired the Hidalgo County Public Library, directed the United Methodist Church of Lordsburg Children’s Choir, and made costumes for Mary’s recitals at the Janaloo and Rita Hill School of Dance in Shakespeare, New Mexico. She also served on the Board of Regents at Western New Mexico University in Silver City and on the boards of several banks in Colorado and New Mexico.
Turning Mundane Moments Into Unforgettable Adventures
Retiring from ranch life and returning to El Paso, Gayle continued to throw herself full-force into her community. At Western Hills United Methodist Church, she sang in the choir, served as a Stephen Minister, planned an annual women’s retreat, attended Bible study and was a founding member of The Ridge, a spin-off church. She was a regular volunteer at the Opportunity Center for the Homeless and was a decades-long member of The Fantastiks Book Club. During her life she mastered (and passed on) the arts of hotel upgrades, hand-squeezed margaritas, surprise parties, rum cakes and excellent pranks, once delivering several hundred pre-filled water balloons to her daughter Kassidee to celebrate the last day of eighth grade at Lincoln Middle School (police were summoned). She had a brilliant smile and glorious handwriting, and no one could out-Christmas Gayle. She was a second mom to dozens (scattered from San Francisco to New York), never sentimental but very quick to cry or laugh (sometimes simultaneously). She didn’t follow rules but had a remarkable moral compass, collected strays (both four- and two-legged) and was always available for anyone hurting or in need of a very good listener.
Gayle had a gift for turning mundane moments into unforgettable adventures, and she accepted life’s difficulties as welcome challenges, facing them with grit, determination and a confident smile. In her last years, Gayle took on Parkinson’s disease with unwavering dignity and optimism and could be seen zipping around town through the end. Gayle is survived by her husband of 52 years; her cat Max (who snuck into the ICU to snuggle with Gayle during her last night on Earth); her above-mentioned children; son-in-law Adam; daughter-in-spirit Sunny; grandchildren Brynne, Katerina, Kipp and Mars (who call her Geege); her brother Rod and his family; her sister Ann; best of friends Marsha, Margie, Sarah and Sara; and the abundance of other loved ones who considered Gayle a friend, advisor and confidant who knew their deepest secrets (she kept them to the end). Gayle’s magnetic enthusiasm poured forth into her relationships with all humans, blind to life’s differences and divisions; she consistently saw the good in people and made them better for her appreciation of them. To paraphrase the last line of Charlotte’s Web, one of Gayle’s favorite books to read aloud to children (and one she never got through without tears), it is not often someone comes along who is a true friend and a great mother. Gayle was both.