Gaile Anne Yank

Gaile Anne Yank, the Lord’s handmaid, left this world on June 23. 2025. She passed while her two adult children each held one of her hands and told her that they loved her. Now in Heaven, she is reunited with her beloved husband, Verne, who preceded her in death, and together they experience indescribable love, joy and peace in the presence of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Gaile was born to Lee and Florence Maddox in Sherwood, Oregon on October 25, 1934. Her family and Verne’s family both trace their roots to the days of the Thirteen Colonies. Gaile grew up believing in the God of the Bible. And she grew up embracing the values that made America great: honesty, integrity, devotion to family, loyalty to the United States of America, and the necessity to work hard for the things a person needs or wants.

Her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and her embracing traditional American values produced remarkable inner strength and perseverance in Gaile. These qualities became evident in the mid-1970s when she battled and survived a life-threatening form of cancer. And a few years later, her beloved husband died of cancer.

But those two calamities did not crush Gaile’s spirit. She did not waste her time and energy wallowing in self-pity. She had two children to raise. So, she worked as a house cleaner in order to provide a home, food and clothing to her son, Steve and her daughter, Debbie.

And even though she worked hard to meet her family’s needs -like her Pioneer Ancestors- she never lost her love for adventure and her love for the great outdoors. Many times, while Steve and Debbie were children, she took them to the coast and to the rivers, mountains and forests of the Great Pacific Northwest.

And she kept her body fit and trim so she could continue to do the things that she enjoyed as long as possible. In 2001 -about seven weeks before her 67th birthday, Gaile put on a backpack and hiked nine miles into the Red Buttes Wilderness with her son Steve. And they camped out in the forest for about a week before hiking the nine miles back to the car.

Years later, as Gaile got older, she was no longer able to go on such arduous incursions, but her love for adventure and the great outdoors never waned. She went on countless road trips with Steve and Debbie -sometimes traversing rough roads in Steve’s four-wheel-drive vehicles and discovering remote wilderness areas many miles from civilization.

And as the years passed, her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ grew stronger and deeper. She spent several hours each day quietly praying and reading the Bible. She also enjoyed figuring out the answers to Bible quizzes, playing solitaire and watching travel shows on television.

Gaile was a gentle soul and a humble woman. She experienced all the emotions common to humanity including joy, sorrow, fear, and anger, but she was never known to use cuss words or act abusively towards another human being. She had a buoyant spirit, a bubbly personality and a contagious smile. She loved to laugh and she had a knack for making people feel comfortable, loved and accepted.

Gaile’s children: Steve and Debbie and her grandchildren: Katie and Trevor rejoice to know that Gaile lives forever in the Kingdom of God and is no longer confined to a frail mortal body. But they also know that they will deeply miss her all the days of their lives in this world – until it is their time to join her in Heaven. In addition to her parents and her husband, Gaile was preceded in death by her brother Ray and her sister, June. She is survived by two brothers: Verne and Clifford.