Gayle Fields Blakey

Gayle Felicia Fields was born in Richmond on June 14, 1963 and spent her early years with her mother Rosa in her grandfather’s home at Church Road, Dinwiddie, County Virginia, before joining the Moody family there. Gayle liked being outdoors where she climbed trees and got to mow the lawn on a good day. She was an excellent student, a baton twirler, and a competitive runner. Her Dinwiddie High School Chess Team won a marathon that put them in the Guinness Book of World Records. Gayle entered college with an academic scholarship and finished George Mason University in 1985 with a major in American Studies. Gayle entered the Peace Corp, making two tours in Togo, West Africa between 1986 and 1989. Gayle was a learner, always looking for something more to know. She completed a French language course at the University of France, Paris (“the Sorbonne”), earned a MA degree in communications at Ohio University in 1992, and attended the Master’s program in Public Health at the University of Texas, Houston. She came to Washington, DC and worked for several years in public relations at the American Society of Civil Engineers, including managing editor of their annual report. She returned to Virginia in 2001 and taught Media Ethics at Virginia Commonwealth University and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. In 2006, Gayle married Dr. Michael Blakey who she had met in Washington and they lived at Cappahosic, Virginia and Silver Spring, Maryland. In Silver Spring, Gayle taught an amazing range of courses including English, French, and Mathematics in Montgomery, County primary and secondary schools. At Cappahosic, Gayle learned to be an expert gardener and kept flowers in the summer and vegetables through fall, trading gardening summers with sailing seasons, as she and her husband sailed their yawl, Aranjuez, on the Intracoastal Waterway from the Chesapeake Bay to Titusville, Florida over the course of 4 years. They were always heading for Jamaica. A life touched by God, always ends in touching others. She is survived by her husband, Michael; stepson, Tariq Blakey; mother, Rosa Fields Moody; father, Herbert “Ronnie” Moody; sisters, Karen Wallace and Tomeika Moody; brother, Brent Moody; nephew, Drake Wallace; nieces, Olivia and Georgia Rash; and a host of other relatives and friends.

Tributes

Gayle Fields Blakey

June 14, 1963 - January 4, 2013