Nancy Miller Gale

Nancy Miller Gale, a longtime resident of Belvedere, died April 18 after a long illness. She was 91.

Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, on March 19, 1935, to parents Siebert and Maxine Miller, Nancy attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1957. She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She majored in English literature because of her lifelong love of reading. As Nancy was fond of saying, she always had her nose in a book.

She met her husband, Dan, at Washington University, where they both graduated in 1957, and were married three days after graduation. Dan was an architect and they traveled all over the world for many years in connection with the many architectural projects he worked on, as well as for pleasure. Nancy and Dan lived in St. Louis until 1966, when they moved to Aspen, Colorado, for three years. They later moved to Belvedere, California, which they both loved and considered their true home. Over the years, they built four different homes in Belvedere.

Their favorite travel places were in Europe, especially France and Italy. After many years of renting homes in Provence, they purchased a lovely old stone farmhouse in Saint Rémy de Provence, France, in January 2006. Sadly, Dan was able to enjoy the new home for only a short time before he passed away suddenly in March 2006.

Nancy is survived by daughters Caroline of Staunton, Virginia, Rebecca of Charroux, France, and Daniel of Arcata, California, as well as grandchildren Michael, Nicholas, Emily, Eli, Bailey, Blair, and Daniel. Additionally, she is survived by great-grandchildren including Max, Miles, Rose, Leo, Teddy, and Athena. Nancy is also survived by her sister Joan as well as her niece, Nancy, and nephew, Thomas.

Nancy’s favorite activities were reading, cooking, travel, gardening, bridge, and hiking around Belvedere’s hills. She was a Master Gardener and a member of the Marin Garden Club for a number of years. She was also a long-time member of the Belvedere-Tiburon Museum Society Auxiliary. She and Dan loved to cook together and entertain their many friends. They both passed on a love of food and cooking to their children and grandchildren.

In later years she and her partner Al Haussener traveled the world, including enjoying many years on Al’s East Coast-based yacht, Blue Star. She and Al also traveled to Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Egypt and South Africa, as well as a cruising with family and friends on Blue Star on the East Coast and up the Hudson River into Canada.

Nancy will be interred in the courtyard of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere. No funeral or celebration of life is planned, at Nancy’s request. In lieu of flowers, donations in Nancy’s memory may be sent to the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society at https://landmarkssociety.com or at 1550 Tiburon Boulevard, Suite M, Tiburon, CA 94920, 415-435-1853.