Aba Gayle, 89, a resident of Silverton, Oregon for 20 years, passed away on June 29th, 2023.
Aba was born Gayle Marguerite Wedseltoft to Povl and Helen Wedseltoft in San Mateo, California on November 30, 1933. Her family moved to Wisconsin in 1947, and Aba graduated from Shorewood High School in 1951. She studied for two years at the University of Wisconsin majoring in home economics. On June 12, 1954, she married Ralph Blount, and they moved back to Northern California where their three children were born and raised. Aba was an amazing, dedicated mom providing an ideal loving and nurturing environment for her children. She was highly involved in their school and outside activities. She was always the first parent to volunteer to be the cub scout den mother, campfire girl leader, or whatever else her kids were involved in. She was an enthusiastic participant in all the many family excursions including trips to their cabin in the mountains along with water and snow skiing trips. A second marriage in 1970 added two stepsons to the household. Her sense of humor and contagious laugh helped her deal well with the challenge of having five teenagers simultaneously, four in each grade in high school and one in junior high.
Tragedy struck in 1980 when Aba’s youngest daughter, Catherine, was murdered at age 19. Aba described Catherine as “my beautiful daughter who radiated love and joy.” There were several dark years of anguish, anger, obsession with revenge, and depression that followed. An epiphany led her to send a letter of forgiveness to the person responsible. She learned that this act of forgiveness had a powerful healing effect on her and helped her move out of the darkness back into the light. She learned that a previous promise that an execution would bring her closure was a myth. Aba was then motivated by her own experience to educate other people and spread the word about the power of forgiveness and what she thought was the immorality of the death penalty. She gained notoriety for these beliefs and gave lectures and interviews all over the United States, and the world including Italy, Switzerland, Scotland, France, and Taiwan.
An active community member in Silverton, Aba was instrumental in the Silverton Mosaic Society which worked with the city and community members to refurbish and renovate the Leo Martin Rumely III Memorial Fountain in Coolidge McClaine Park and add a mosaic art project to the fountain.
Aba cherished her family. Adept at social media, and with a lot of computer savvy, one of her favorite joys later in life was keeping close tabs on the activities of her grandchildren and archiving photos of them and her great-grandchildren from Facebook and Instagram. She loved being the matriarch at the annual extended family Kitts-Blount-Scott Thanksgiving celebrations. Aba was an avid reader her entire life, super smart and always a wealth of knowledge.
Aba is survived by four children: Lindsay Blount, Elizabeth Blount (Joe), Aaron Orr, Matthew Orr (Kim). One brother: Richard Wedseltoft (Maureen). Five grandchildren: Connor Kitts (Lindsay), Catherine Reid (Spencer), Cynthia Blount, Nancy Kitts (Jesus), Jane Kitts (Walker), and three great-grandchildren, Merle, Lennox, and Julian.
Journey of Hope https://www.journeyofhope.org/donate-now
or Death Penalty Focus https://deathpenalty.org/donate
