Gail Shugart Summerlin

Gail Shugart Summerlin was called home to be with her Lord on the 12th day of June 2016. She was born on the 18th of December in 1939 to Clarence Glenn Shugart and Margaret Sprinkle Shugart of Yadkinville, NC. Growing up on a dairy farm taught Gail to maintain a strong work ethic and to keep a servant’s heart. She devoted herself to serving others from the very beginning. Her high school years included serving as a co-chief for the cheerleading squad and working as a school bus driver. Because of her academic accomplishments, she was inducted into the Honor Society. She was chosen to represent her school as Miss Boonville High for two years in 1956 and 1958. After graduation she enrolled in Old City Memorial Hospital’s Nursing School in Winston-Salem and graduated with her degree in 1962. She began work as an RN at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC and worked for over 30 years in different areas of nursing between Rex, Wake Medical Center, Raleigh Community Hospital, Drs. Annie and Louis Wilkerson, Dr. Wally Evans and Carolina Allergy and Asthma.

During short breaks in her nursing career, she continued working to serve others and received her real estate license, sold medical insurance and also co-founded a bakery. As the owner of the Cookies & Crumbs Bake Shoppe, she established herself as Cary’s first hometown bakery in 1983. Although it has changed hands and names several times since then, it is still a fixture in downtown Cary. Her love for the outdoors led her to serve with the Raleigh Ski & Outing Club and she was a member of local tennis teams as well.

Committed to service in her community, Gail was active in the Cary Jaycettes, the Cary Historical Society and she belonged to the First United Methodist Women’s Circle during the 1970s. She was a member of Living Water Baptist Church in Longs, SC and she was a former member of Trinity Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC and White Plains United Methodist Church in Cary, NC. She shared her love for the Lord and her exemplary life was a light to everyone that knew her.

She was a loving and loyal wife to her husband of 23 years, Tony Summerlin and a devoted mother to her children Glenda Westbrook-Neilsen (Kenneth), Curtis Westbrook, Jr. (Schann), Angela Mikos and to her stepsons Jeremy Summerlin and Landon Summerlin (Danielle). She also believed that the sun rose and set in the eyes of her grandchildren: Kane, Conor and Kylie Graves; Savannah, Spencer and Summer Westbrook; Clark Summerlin and Cameron Summerlin. Gail is also survived by her brother Clarke Shugart (Judy) of Johnson City, TN.

A funeral service will be held at The First United Methodist Church in Cary, NC on Wednesday, June 15th at 11:00am. The family will receive friends at a reception after the service. A memorial service will take place at Mitchell’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Boonville, NC on Thursday, June 16th at 2:00pm, with the burial in the church cemetery following the service. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that memorial donations be sent to the SECU Hospice House of Johnston County, 426 Hospital Road, Smithfield, NC 27577 or to the Mitchell’s Chapel United Methodist Church Building Fund, 2410 Center Road, Boonville, NC 27011.

Arrangements under the direction of Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, Cary, North Carolina.