Edith Gaylord

Edith Gaylord was a person you assumed would always be around. Her passing has left a great void.

I first spoke to her one morning twenty years ago. I had called to ask for a copy of “The Airgun Letter”. Edith made me feel like friend right from the start. That was twenty years ago.

A few years later she called to tell me that she and Tom would buy a story about shooting airguns with my daughter, Valerie, that I had submitted to “The Airgun Review”. Steph, my wife, had taken the photos and was delighted when she told me, “Ron, Edith Gaylord is calling”. Ever since then, they always graciously asked about Valerie.

Last January, I was at the Shot Show watching the taping of a segment for “American Airgunner”, when I noticed a woman standing next to me.

“Edith?” I asked.

“Ron Gill, how are you,” she said without a moment’s hesitation. She and Tom were as gracious as ever.

She said, “You should rewrite that story about Valerie, and get it published again”.

“But I sold that story to you years ago,” I said.

“Don’t worry, I give it back to you,” she said, and that was all there was to it.

I told this story to someone at the Pansal squirrel shoot in Idaho in May of this year. He thought it over, smiled and said, “The Gaylords have a lot of class”.

They sure do, and we will all miss Edith.

With Respect,

Ron Gill