Gail was born January 6, 1945, in Phoenix, Arizona, with her twin sister, Dale. Her parents, John and Katherine McKeague, were employed at a Japanese relocation camp, called Gila River, located a few miles outside Phoenix.  Her family included two older sisters, Kit and Marion.  When the relocation camp was closed after WWII, her family moved to Yakama, Washington, where her father became the book keeper for a large apple orchard. Her family lived there for only a few years before a bankruptcy of the orchard required another move, this time to Eugene, Oregon. A few years later the family again moved to Seattle, Washington, namely to Alkai Point in West Seattle.  Gail attended first through third grade at Alkai Elementary.

During the summer, at the end of her third grade, her mother's mother needed additional care, and so the family moved again to her mother's home town, Elnora, Indiana. She attended fourth through twelfth grade in Elnora public schools. She then obtained her B.S. and M.S. from Indiana State University located in Terre Haute majoring in special education. While in graduate school, she met her husband to be.  Her first teaching position was at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School on the south side of Indianapolis. At the end of the first year of teaching, she married Jim Richardson and moved back to Terre Haute. Her next year of teaching was in Paris, Illinois, a short commute from Terre Haute. The next few years she taught special education students in Howard County Maryland while Jim went to law school.

Following Jim's graduation from law school, Gail had a daughter, Katie, who now lives in New Jersey. Two years later, she had a son, Drew, who now lives in suburban Philadelphia.  And a year and a half later, she had another daughter, Libby, who lives in Portland, OR.  Following the arrival of all her children, the family moved from the Washington, DC area to Indianapolis, where the family resided for more than thirty years. When all her children were in school, she returned to teaching for a while as a resource specialist in the local high school. She later became an assistant librarian in a law firm, where she spent more than ten years.  She died April 2, 2021.  She is survived her husband, Andrew, and by all her children, two granddaughters, and two grandsons.  She is also survived by her two older sisters. Her twin sister died in 2019.