Gail Bell Obituary

Bell , Gail L.

Gail L. Bell passed away on July 28. She was 84. Born on December 10, 1940, she was the daughter of the late Ree and the late Irene Panichi. She is survived by her husband, Taylor H.A. Bell, the retired high school sports editor of the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times.

Growing up in south suburban Blue Island, Gail had fond memories of swimming and playing tennis with her childhood friend Martha Fentem at Memorial Park in Blue Island. She also enjoyed spending time with customers at Chuck Cavallini's Chuck Wagon in Midlothian, where her father was the longtime bartender. After graduation from Blue Island (now Eisenhower) Community High School in 1958, she became a secretary at Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting firm in Chicago. She moved to New York City and was a secretary at AT&T's corporate office. In 1972, she returned to Chicago to become a secretary at Field Enterprises, the owner of the Daily News and Sun-Times. It was at this time that she became reacquainted with her future husband Taylor, who also grew up in Blue Island and was a high school classmate. They married on April 21, 1976, in the chamber of Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz. In 1978, Gail joined former Field Enterprises vice-president Peter W. Smith, a venture capitalist who opened his own investment firm in the Wrigley Building. In serving as Smith's executive secretary, she became one of the highest paid secretaries in the country. She also loved to draw, read mystery novels, especially Michael Connelly, and travel with her husband, a Civil War buff. They visited London, Paris and Rome. Other favorite destinations were Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Natchez, Mississippi, Williamsburg, Virginia, Colorado, Monument Valley, Yosemite, Virginia City, Nevada, and Glacier National Park. Special places were Siesta Dunes Condominium on Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida, the Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia, the Greenbriar resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She retired in 2005. Diagnosed with dementia in January, 2024, she was admitted to Artis Senior Living of Lakeview in February, 2025, where she was a resident at the time of her passing. Services were private.

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