What we know about Gail:
Jake is her favorite son. She is kind of the mother of the town and helps comfort everyone. She was/is a nurse.

Gail started dating Johnston while he was going with someone else. Johnston's mother didn't like her because the mom thought Gail was a "home wrecker" even though Johnston wasn't married. Gail and Johnston were married for 40 years.

She is a very strong woman with much earned wisdom. She is very disappointed in her son Eric for his affair with Mary and for leaving his wife, April, despite her own relationship with Johnston. She is the buffer between Jake and his father.

What we don't know:

• She makes references to a rocky marriage at one point with Johnston but we don't know the details.
• How much did or does she know about Jake's five year absence?

Her role in the town:
She was Johnston's "behind the scenes" support and tempered Johnston, when necessary, is Jake's confidant, and the one who tries to hold her family together. The people of Jericho seem to listen to her, as evidenced when she talks the town into helping feed the refugees instead of sending them out of town.


Family:
Two sons, Jake and Eric.
Married to former Mayor Johnston Green, deceased.
Favorite son is Jake
Trivia:
What did the note she was holding while telling Mary Baily how much she disliked her say?
Be nice. She will be family one day.


Character connections:
Mother to Jake and Eric
Wife to Johnston (deceased now widow)
Mother-in-Law to April (now deceased)
Friendly with Emily & Heather. The last two could simply be due to their romantic interests in Jake.