Gail Camp's Obituary
Ann Gail Camp was born on July 30, 1925 to Dr. Warren Grady and Theo Green Alford in Memphis, Tennessee, Gail grew up on Carr Avenue in Midtown with her two late sisters, Warrene Alford Crow and Frances Alford McDonald. She spent her weekends on their family farm on Stateline Road where she rode horses, explored, and developed a love for nature, animals and the outdoors. Gail went to Central High School where she met the love of her life in 7th grade, Frank Camp, who lived closeby on Harbert. They made lifelong friends together at Central and enjoyed getting sodas at the Pig and Whistle. Gail and Frances had so many suitors that Memphis passed a noise ordinance due to the honking, but that didn’t stop Frank from writing Gail love letters signed by “Casanova at Large.”. When the co-ed distractions became too much, Gail got shipped off to St. Mary’s School for girls and Frank got shipped to Webb School for boys.
Gail was an excellent student at St. Mary’s, mastering her math and science classes and jumping into French III with no prerequisites. She enjoyed participating in school plays and doing ballet, tap and toe-dancing.
After graduation, Gail went to Ole Miss where she pledged Chi Omega and took pre-med classes, getting inducted into the honorary medical society Beta Beta Beta and finishing a few credits short of a BS in Biology. This is because Frank came home from WWII and Gail immediately switched to Home Ec to become a housewife. They started off in a small apartment and later built their dream house at 495 Melody Lane where they would live for the rest of their lives. Gail was active in LeBonheur, Garden Club, and Cotton Wives, but she quickly got bored and asked if she could start hunting with Frank to “keep him safe”. He bought her waders, a gun, and a duck caller, and suddenly a star was born. Soon, Gail was outshooting and outcalling all the men that accompanied them. They preferred hunting in timber at OK Club in Weiner, Arkansas where they built a cabin but they also went on tough, freezing duck hunts and goose hunts in mummy boats and tanks in the Mississippi Delta, and in the gummy mud in Louisiana.
Gail helped Frank host countless sweltering dove hunts on her family farm and they loved fishing in between hunting seasons. In the late 50’s, Bill Dowdle encouraged Gail to enter a calling contest so she did, and she won almost every one she entered, collecting more hardware than will fit in the cabinet. In 1959 and 1960, she won the Women’s World Championship Duck Calling Contest in Stuttgart, Arkansas just before having their only child, Ann, at the age of 36. Rather than staying home, Gail dragged Ann everywhere she and Frank went, teaching her to appreciate older people, nature, the outdoors, fishing, camping, hunting, duckcalling and retrievers.
Gail was everyone’s favorite counselor at Camp Merry Acres, teaching all the kids to appreciate and understand the outdoors as the Nature Counselor. Gail and Frank loved training their many beloved retrievers and running them in dog trials all over the Mid-South, adding to their treasure trove of lifelong friends. Gail was featured in a magazine for being the oldest trainer handling the oldest dog when he achieved his Master Hunt Title. During the school year, Frank kept hunting while Gail poured herself into Ann’s life, never missing a game or event, and becoming an adopted mom to all of Ann’s high school, college and law school friends.
Once her grandkids, John and Maddie, came along, Gail devoted her life to raising and teaching them while getting to know their friends too. Everyone at each of their schools knew Gail from the carpool line, coming to school events, watching their games and being ever present for everything they did, especially John’s Eagle Scout ceremony and Maddie’s music and dance performances. Gail made the most of her 7 years with Frank in dementia, and when he passed in 2021, she was heartbroken but kept going, racking up even more accomplishments in her last 4 years of life. She got inducted into the Arkansas Outdoors Hall of Fame, Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame, appeared on the Maggie Williams Podcast, starred in a chilly outdoor hunting documentary, and amassed a TikTok following of 9K inspired people sending her cards, letters, pictures and callers to sign. She even received a beautiful golden retriever, Sori, as a gift and they were inseparable until Sori’s death.
Like Frank, Gail died peacefully in her beloved home, surrounded by family and friends. She missed her 100th birthday by 3 days. Gail lived life to the fullest and left an indelible mark on everyone she met, being called a “firecracker”, a “force of nature”, “a century of style and class”, “a legend” , a “character” and most of all, an ideal wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She leaves her daughter, Ann Camp Lee (Jordan Colbert), her grandson John Christopher Lee, her granddaughter Madison Ann Lee, her niece Linda Holmes, and her nephews, Grady, Webster and Ford McDonald. The family gives special thanks and appreciation to Gail’s dedicated and loving caregivers Earline Duncan, Olayinka Akkinawo, and Ashzha Outlaw plus those who cared for her and Frank over the course of the decade– Angela, Tamika, Sharon and Ethel. Services will be held on Monday, 8/4/25 at Memorial Park Funeral Home with visitation at 10, a memorial service at 11 and a graveside service at noon.
What’s your fondest memory of Gail?
What’s a lesson you learned from Gail?
Share a story where Gail's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Gail you’ll never forget.
How did Gail make you smile?