Gayle Pearl, an early Corridor denizen,
died in San Francisco on December 20, 2008. A Detroit native who
graduated from Mumford High in 1960, Gayle came to the Corridor in
late 1962, after a short time living in San Francisco. Gayle came to
the Corridor as a sculptor, and an actor in live theater, who was
one of the founding members of The Detroit Artists Workshop. (Her
parents donated their old upright piano to John Sinclair and the
Workshop folks.) During her time in the Corridor, she lived at
Second & Prentis, and in the 4th Avenue enclave. After a couple
years in the Corridor, however, Gayle again left for San Francisco,
where she lived the remaining 43 years of her life.
In the Bay Area, Gayle joined the San Francisco Mime Troupe
(pronounced "meem," as she insisted...as in the French
pronunciation). This radical, political theater group (now in its
50th year) performed what was then called "guerilla theater" in the
parks and streets of San Francisco, rarely practicing any
"mime"...in fact, they were most often loud and raucous in their
anti-racist, anti-corporate, anti-war performances of the mid '60s
to mid '70s. Gayle was part of the traveling Troupe of that period,
visiting cities and campuses across the country, including
performances in Detroit, Ann Arbor and East Lansing. Through the
Mime Troupe, Gayle also came to be friends with Bill Graham, whose
initial forays into concert promotions were fundraisers specifically
to benefit the Mime Troupe.
Gayle eventually left the Troupe and married fellow Troupe-member
Robert Slattery. Together, they remained active in progressive
causes in the Bay Area, and became members of the San Francisco
Symphony and Opera societies, conveniently living just a few blocks
from both venues, in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Gayle's health
deteriorated over the last few years, but she continued taking voice
classes and piano lessons, as well as creating additional sculpture
in clay and marble. Gayle's actual time living in the Corridor was
relatively brief, but the creative influences on her from her time
there and the connections she made during those years, affected the
cultural and political focus of the rest of her life. There was a
memorial service for Gayle at the San Francisco Zen Center on
January 3, attended by, among others, several fellow native
Detroiters who moved to the Bay Area in the '60s and early '70s.
Gayle's ashes were later spread into San Francisco Bay.
David Pearl
Please place your remembrances of
Gayle
here.
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