Gail Jewell Brand, died Saturday, March 26, 2011 at her home in Bismarck at the vibrant age of 90 years. Gail’s funeral service will be at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at Taylor Lutheran Church, Taylor, with Rev. Bob Wittstruck officiating. Interment will follow at Pioneer Cemetery south of Taylor. Visitation will be on Tuesday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Ladbury Funeral Service, with a prayer service at 7:30 p.m. Visitation will continue one hour prior to services at the church on Wednesday.
Gail Dasher was born on February 1, 1921, in Glasgow, Mont., the daughter of George and Lillian (Walstad) Dasher. She grew up at the site of the Fort Peck Dam in NE Montana and finished high school in Glasgow. Gail was confirmed in the Galpin Lutheran Church in Glasgow. She greatly enjoyed the excitement of thousands of newcomers to Fort Peck during the dam’s construction. Gail lived and worked in California and Oklahoma as a legal secretary. She moved to Minot and worked there during WWII. It was there that she met a young naval flight instructor, Leland Brand. She and Leland were married on October 6, 1944, and moved to the Stone Hammer Ranch south of Taylor, to begin a family and a life of ranching.
Gail and Leland raised four daughters. Gail was active in the Taylor community teaching Sunday School, driving school bus and supporting her daughters in their activities. She was an accomplished seamstress who required no patterns for creating school clothes, prom and wedding dresses for her daughters. She loved making her own clothes as well and had a ‘passion for fashion’. She was a free spirit, unconventional and loved to dance with Lee. Gail will be remembered for being one of the first to ride a motorcycle (a bright red Honda) in Taylor and for taking up pipe smoking (a rhinestone studded red pipe) when she was trying to stop cigarette smoking. She had a real knack, that continued to her death, for relating to teenagers and young adults. She was a very open-minded, young-thinking 90 year old. She and her two oldest granddaughters, Tracy and Jessie, were planning a June cruise to the Bahamas.
She began to winter in Arizona in 1970 to minimize arthritis and came back in the spring to be with Leland on the ranch and watch a growing cadre of grandchildren. It was in Arizona that she took up oil painting and became an accomplished artist. She painted portraits of all the grandchildren and won a number of competitions with her land and seascapes. In 1998 she left Arizona moving to North Dakota to be closer to family.
Gail loved her family, the arts and clothes. She had a keen eye for fashion. Although she was 90 years of age, she surprised many with her style and youthful appearance. She loved to analyze the physical characteristics of the grand and great grandchildren, right down to the dimples on their knees. Any physical defect was generally the responsibility of genetics outside the Brand family.
Gail is survived by her husband, Leland Brand, Taylor; daughters, Lynn (Brian) Tool, Portage, Wisc., Nancy (Larry) Kleingartner, Bismarck, and Barbara (Dennis) Dohrmann, Taylor; 11 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and one sister, Gerry Drury, LeClaire, Iowa. Preceding her in death was daughter, Jo Carol; her sisters, Avis and June; brother, Graydon; and her parents.
