Gail (Spencer) Cannon was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. The doctors and experts did not think she would live very long and her mother could not care for her. Due to her poor prognosis and severe disabilities at two years old she was placed in a nursing home for what was expected to be a very short life span. But the dedicated nurses at the facility refused to give up on her. They taught her to walk and talk and interact with the world around her. In January 1965 she was chosen as the Kosciusko County, Indiana March of Dimes Poster Child and in June 1965 she left the nursing home for the foster care system. She continued to thrive despite the expert’s belief she would only live at most another 8-10 years, in 1980 she graduated from Hobart High School in northwestern Indiana. She also personally located her final foster family, Sharon and Robert Salyers of Portage, Indiana and she continued to live with them after aging out of the foster care system until she met her life partner and Robert Salyers walked her down the aisle during her February 1985 wedding to Michael Cannon of Tonopah, Nevada.

Gail continued to thrive as a community and church member in Central Nevada. She gave birth to Roxanne in 1987 and Joshua in 1990. She took some college classes and earned her driver’s license and in 1993 she and her family moved to Las Vegas. She raised her children and helped with her five grandchildren and greeted her first great-grandchild in September 2025.

Gail passed away suddenly at home on June 25, 2026. She is preceded in death by her son, Joshua, who passed away in August 2024. She is survived by her husband of 41 years (Michael), her daughter (Roxanne), her grandchildren (Alexis, Austin, Joshua Jr., Amanda and James), her great-granddaughter (Melody) and a number of other little ones who knew her as Grandma Gail.

Gail will be remembered at her service scheduled for July 22, 2026 at 10:00 at the Davis Funeral Home and Memorial Park Chapel, 6200 S. Eastern, Las Vegas, NV 89119.

Her burial at Davis Memorial Park will follow at 11:00.