Gayle Ann Wallace, 72, of Mount Vernon, passed away Monday, Dec. 5, 2022, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids.
Services will be held at a later date.
Gayle Ann was born Feb. 23, 1950, in Leon, the youngest child of Chester Melvin and Mary Elizabeth (Callison) Wallace. The family lived in Corydon and Lorimor, before moving to Mount Vernon in 1957. Gayle graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1968 and from Cornell College in 1972. She taught high school science in Calamus, for one year before returning to school at Kirkwood for computer programming. She worked at Life Investors/Aegon/Transamerica for 40 years, retiring in 2016. She was a lifelong member of the Mount Vernon United Methodist Church.
Growing up with two older brothers and a father who was a coach, Gayle was athletic despite not having organized girls’ sports available. She was intelligent and a skilled computer programmer. She had many varied interests and liked to teach others about things she was passionate about. She often shared tips for better vegetable gardening or cooking, and enjoyed trying new recipes or better yet having someone else make the recipe and she would be the taste-tester. Gayle cared deeply about the natural world and enjoyed visiting prairies, state and national parks and preserves, and other wild places. She visited both the northernmost (Point Barrow, Ark.) and southernmost (Ka Lae, Island of Hawai’i) points in the United States, traveled to Mexico to view the monarch migration, and twice took her nieces on epic road trips when they were teenagers. She also enjoyed birding and participated in many area bird counts. She was the family historian and genealogist, and enjoyed passing on her knowledge to the next generation. Affectionately known as “Aunt Ganny” to her family, she was deeply loved and will be missed.
Gayle Ann was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her brothers Victor (Dee) Wallace of Jackson, Tenn., and Jim (Jackie) Wallace of Mount Vernon. She is also survived by her nephews and nieces, Mike (Kristin) Wallace, Mark (Kishe) Wallace, Amy (Justin) Taylor, Joel (Lori) Wallace, and Jamie (Rik) Smith, and 10 great-nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, Iowa Public Television, or the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. Another way to honor her life would be to enjoy things Gayle loved, such as going for a drive through a park or prairie, planting a garden, feeding the birds, cooking from scratch, or simply gazing up at the stars.
Please share your support and memories with Gayle’s family on her Tribute Wall at www.stewartbaxter.com under Obituaries.