Gail Therese McCarter Thornton, 87, of Memphis, passed away peacefully Sunday, December 20, 2020, after a short stay at Baptist Reynolds Hospice House. She was born in Memphis, November 26, 1933, to the late Nathaniel Gray McCarter and Lucille Elizabeth Rittelmeyer McCarter.
Gail attended St. Agnes Academy from first to twelfth grade and was in the last class to graduate from the campus on Vance and Orleans in 1951. Gail was known for her quick wit and always preferred humor to seriousness. Her fellow SAA students agreed voting her wittiest of her class.
In the fall of 1951, Gail entered St. Joseph School of Nursing and graduated as an R.N. in 1954 when she went straight into nursing in the St. Joseph newborn nursery. In 1966, she moved to the newborn nursery at Methodist Central Hospital where she worked until retirement in 2003.
If you ever drove down Central Avenue near the Pink Palace, you may have seen Gail over the years working in her beautiful yard that she loved. The house was her childhood home that she moved back to in 1977 to care for her mother.
Gail was pre-deceased by the love of her life, Travis Thornton and her son Donald Hutton. She leaves her children, Carter Hutton (Sandy) of Dallas, TX, Dana Smith (Bob) of Malta, OH, and Mark Hutton (Beth) of Memphis, her grandchildren Elizabeth Hutton Smith, Jason Smith, Rachel Hutton Britton, Mallorie Hutton Caradine, Casey Smith Marchal, Lauren Hutton, and Meghan Hutton and eight great-grandchildren.
While Gail was an only child, she was raised alongside her cousins Lucille Cavanaugh Knight, Angela Cavanaugh Thompson, and Frank Cavanaugh.
She will be buried alongside her husband and parents at Calvary Cemetery in Memphis. Due to this time of COVID-19, funeral and graveside services will be private. Memorials can be sent to St. Agnes Academy in Memphis.
