Gai Susan Anderson

Gai Susan Anderson was born September 11, 1946, to Roger E. Miller and Dorothy Veronica Miller in Seattle Washington. She passed away peacefully on the morning of July 27, 2026 at age 79 at home with friends and family following a long battle with Lewy Body Dementia. She had a twin brother, Daniel John Miller, who passed eighteen years ago, and has a younger brother, Marc Miller, living in Washington state.

Gai graduated from St. Mary’s of the Valley High School in Portland, then entered Portland State University where she was elected a student body senator in her freshman year. When the family moved to Reno the following year she attended the University of Nevada where she met her husband, Robert Anderson. She went on to earn a B.A. in psychology followed by a master’s degree in social work at California State University, Fresno, in 1991. Gai enjoyed a successful career as a therapist until 2011 when she retired and moved with Bob to Ukiah, California, to support their son Benjamin and his wife Randy who had lost their eighteen-month-old daughter Gabriella Grace Anderson to cancer.

In their fifty-nine-year happy marriage Gai and Bob raised four sons; Todd, Benjamin, Bernard, and David (twins) of whom they were both very proud. The boys all married and brought into the family, in addition to Gabby, Jacob, Weston, and Mitchell Anderson; Joshua and Caleb Tinker; Christian Magallon and “great granddaughter” Rhea. Time spent with these was always a great joy for Gai.

There are many cliches about hard times and pressure forging diamonds, etc., that Gai could have easily inspired. She had a difficult childhood with imperfect parents, poverty, and health problems. Yet these gave her a love of the truth and a nose for finding it that rarely erred. Her name comes from the French for cheerful or merry. Her strong faith and cooperation with God’s grace put a light and love in her that gave her that big smile. The next time we see her that smile will be amazing.