Resident of Carmel

Gail, daughter of Elizabeth M. and Michael M. DeNatly was born in Albany California and grew up in Vallejo with her younger sister, Janis Partanen. She attended UC Berkeley, graduating with honors in Decorative Arts/Design with aminor in Anthropology in 1962. Gail, and her first husband, landscape architect, Richard G. Murray settled in Carmel that same year. Gail led an ambitious career weaving her skills in design and merchandising throughout –she had a great eye and added an element of beauty to everything she touched. She worked at Gladys McCloud Inc., a well-known boutique in Carmel for many years where her skills as a buyer were honed.

Following her first marriage, she met Alex Gonzales of Carmel and were married in 1974. Alex was an art professor, and head of the Art Department at Monterey Peninsula College and well-known local artist. Following travel with Alex to Mexico and Guatemala, then a sabbatical in Europe the following year where they visited twenty-one countries, Gail and three friends from Carmel (Patricia Bordonaro (Hughes), Ester Goodhue and Carol Lee McDonald) put their entrepreneurial spirits together to create the Cotton Bale, an imported fabric and interior design store at the newly developed Barnyard shopping center. The Cotton Bale thrived for many years.

Gail then moved on to the new Monterey Bay Aquarium Gift and Bookstore. Gail started this position the year prior to the Aquarium opening in 1984, where she worked with an esteemed group of colleagues to create a wonderfully successful venture that epitomized the spirit of Monterey Bay’s rich marine life. Upon her retirement in 1995, Gail continued to pursue entrepreneurial enterprises, consulting on museum shop design and merchandizing for the Steinhart Aquarium, Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

She also volunteered for the Monterey Museum of Art where she reopened the La Mirada Museum Store and helped produce “The Story of La Mirada.” Not long after Monterey’s Cannery Row Antique Mall opened, Gail also opened “Lain Antiques” which she enjoyed for several years.

In retirement Gail and Alex traveled extensively, contributed to and enjoyed the culture and arts community of the Monterey Peninsula. Gail was an avid reader, and an artist in her own right, creating colorful weavings, watercolor works, printmaking, and enjoyed photography.

She maintained a beautiful home, and was interested in investing, travel, nature (treasured visiting Yosemite), loved flowers, and her many dogs –most of whom were rescues from the SPCA. She had alarge circle of loving friends, many of whom she met at Cal, through her work enterprises and the local arts community.

Gail was a long-time member of the Junior League of the Monterey Peninsula, the National Society of Colonial Dames and the local chapter of The Questers, dedicated to the study conservation and preservation of local historical landmarks, where she remained active through her last month of life. She was a beloved and eternally supportive mother of her two children who she is survived by, daughter, Dr. Alison Murray of Truckee Ca, a Research Professor of Microbial Ecology and Genomics at Nevada’s Desert Research Institute, and son, Scott Murray; she is also survived by her sister, Janis Partanen of Napa, Ca. Her loving, artist husband, Alex, of 46 years, passed in October 2020.

A memorial service is being planned for early fall, contact the family at: carmelgna@gmail.com for more details.