Gloria A. Cail

Gloria Angela Cail (neé Longo) returned to the angels in the early morning hours of February 2, 2025. She left this plane peacefully in her sleep while in her home with family near. She is survived by many loved ones, including her brother Paul Longo, her sister Fran Howlan, her sisters-in-law Ginny Longo, Mary Caughey, Claudia Longo, and Rose Katy Blangero Cail, her children Krys Cail, Kevin Cail, Keith Cail, Bonnie Sheeley, and Laura Cail, and her son-in-law Frank Sheeley. Gloria was blessed to know nineteen grandchildren by birth and eleven by marriage, as well as forty-eight great-grandchildren (with three more arriving in the near future), and two great-great-grandchildren. All but two have survived her, and they will miss their Nonnie terribly.

Gloria, an Albany native, was the daughter of Italian Ellis Island immigrants. In her ninety-five years, she had many accomplishments and adventures. While in high school, she entered a competition and won the honor of having a dress she designed displayed on State Street in Albany. She married a WWII vet, Frederick Cail, at eighteen; together they hosted cooking parties in people's homes where they sold pots and pans. This may have been a foreshadowing of the business they would run in their later years—Cail’s Store was known and loved by many at its first location on Speigletown Road and later at their home (five barns full) on Fogarty Road.

Gloria attended SUNY Albany, and she worked for the phone company. She later operated a modeling school with her partner and dear friend, Elaine Drooze, and together they arranged fashion shows throughout the Capital District, one of which brought her within inches of a then-young Ronald Reagan. She had her own radio program, That Girl Gloria, where she encountered such luminaries as Arthur Godfrey, Gypsy Rose Lee, and the Clooneys—all of this before she was twenty-four, at which point she started a family. This began what she considered her greatest accomplishment and favorite adventure—motherhood.

A plot twist in her life occurred in 1968 when, with her husband at work and her four children in bed, a methane gas explosion rocked her Altamont home from its foundations. Seven months pregnant, she heroically led her children to safety from the smoldering lumber and broken glass. This began a series of events that would relocate her to a pre-revolutionary farmhouse in Schaghticoke where she would reside for the rest of her life, and which recently encountered its own close call with a housefire.

Throughout the years, as her family grew, so did her faith in Christ. She became the spiritual mother and pastor to many. Her good works could fill volumes. She organized women’s prayer breakfasts, hosted a WNGN television program (Sister to Sister), assisted in establishing the Prayer and Healing Center (Koinonia Health Care) in Albany, and became a published author (The Kingdom of God: A Disciple’s Guide). Her faith and willingness to serve resulted in many amazing moments; a couple of her favorites were internationally-known cross-carrying preacher Arthur Blessitt “dropping by” and resting in her living room, and Paul Crouch of TBN crediting her on air for influencing his decision to buy a station in the Capital District (she had sent him a pecan pie).

She was a source of inspiration to all—even those she never met—but most particularly her brothers and sisters, her children, and generations of grandchildren, cousins, nieces, and nephews. Gloria was self-sacrificing and gave freely and without complaint to all those she encountered—not just of her possessions or finances, but of her time and attention. And oh, the food! Her greatest legacy was in the living growth of the lives she touched every day. She always stressed the positive, the good, and the wonderful, and she planted seeds of such everywhere; so, while a beautiful tree has fallen, she leaves in her place a burgeoning forest. Unmoved by trials and troubles. Unshakable and full of faith. She lived her life by the imperative, “Do not limit a limitless God!”

“Well done,” saith the Lord, “My good and faithful servant!”

Gloria did not want a formal funeral service, preferring a simple graveside service, to which all are welcome and which will be held on Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 11th) at 11:00 a.m. at Our Lady of Angels Cemetery where she will be laid to rest next to her husband. The family asks that if you would like to honor her memory and celebrate her life, please forego sending flowers (although she loved them) and, instead, bless someone else’s life with a gift (especially the gift of food).