Gayle K. Byerly, 85

December 2, 1938 - January 12, 2024

Gayle Kimbrel Armistead Byerly, 85, died on January 12, 2024, in Lititz, Pa., after a brief hospital stay attended by many loving family members. Born Dec. 2, 1938, in Nashville, Tennessee, she was the daughter of William Houston Armistead and Mary Elizabeth (Gratzer) Armistead. She led a rich life with many roles as a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, college professor, and nurse.

After a childhood spent in Corning, N.Y., where her father rose to the position of director of research and vice chairman for technology at Corning Glass, she began her educational journey when she was admitted to Goucher College at the age of 13 under a Ford Foundation scholarship program for gifted students, graduating in 1957. In 1956, she married the love of her life, Harold Wilfred Byerly, who predeceased her in 2010. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 with a specialization in medieval literature and taught at Ursinus College while also raising their family of four children. An early proponent of the use of computers for linguistic analysis, she published an article on the use of computers in the humanities in 1978. In 1986 she gave up her tenured professorship at Ursinus to become a nurse, having completed a Bachelor of Science and MSN in nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. She worked at Abington Memorial Hospital and Chestnut Hill Rehabilitation Hospital as a gerontological nurse and clinical educator. A lifelong student, her conversion to Judaism in the 1990’s led to an intensive study of Hebrew that she continued diligently through her final weeks. She was a member of Congregation Shaari Shomayin.

Gayle and Harold shared and conveyed to their children a love of the extraordinary beauty of the nation’s national parks, spending many summers on months-long family camping trips to favorite parks such as Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Bryce Canyon, and Acadia. She was an avid swimmer who loved nothing more than a refreshing dip in a mountain lake after a long hike. She considered the years spent traveling with the kids crammed into their green pop-top camper the highlight of their lives together.

Gayle was a devoted mother to her four children, Sandra Lynn (Byerly) Cole (Dana Ryan); Jennifer Elise (Byerly) Willis; Keith Armistead Byerly (Anne); and Alison Ruth Byerly (Stephen Jensen). She was a wonderfully supportive and deeply loved grandmother to Wesley Cole; Christopher (Jen) and Matthew (Tara) Willis; Michael (Sarah), Daniel, and Elizabeth (Rachel) Byerly; and Laramie and Ryan Jensen. She was a doting great-grandmother to Bella, Josh and Taylor, Ella Rose, and Zachariah.

She is also survived by her brothers Thomas (Jeanne) Armistead and William Armistead, and sister Elise (Armistead) Hancock, along with their families. She was predeceased by her sister Thaniel Armistead and her brother John Armistead.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am Monday, January 15 with Rabbi Jack P. Paskoff officiating, at the Spacht-Snyder Family Funeral Home & Crematory, 127 S. Broad Street, Lititz, Pa 17543. Interment will be private.