Gail Sloatman
| Gail Zappa | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Adelaide Gail Sloatman January 1, 1945 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
| Died | October 7, 2015 (aged 70) Los Angeles, California, US |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Occupation | Trustee of Zappa Family Trust (2002–2015) |
| Spouse(s) | Frank Zappa (m. 1967; d. 1993) |
| Children | |
Adelaide Gail Zappa (née Sloatman; January 1, 1945 – October 7, 2015) was the wife of musician and composer Frank Zappa and the trustee of the Zappa Family Trust. They met in Los Angeles in 1966 and married while she was pregnant with their first child, Moon, later followed by Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva.
In 2002, Gail founded the Zappa Family Trust, a holder for the title and copyright to Frank's musical and artistic products, as well as his commercial image. In 2015, the Trust was given to her son Ahmet shortly before she died of lung cancer.
Gail Sloatman was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of a US Navy nuclear weapons researcher, John Klein Sloatman Jr., and grew up in Hollywood. She lived with her family in London, where her father was posted in 1959, and attended Marymount International School. She also modeled for photographer Terence Donovan.
She worked at the Office of Naval Research and Development, and then moved to New York, where she studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in the mid-1960s. After returning to Los Angeles, she met producer Kim Fowley, and recorded a single with him as "Bunny and Bear". She made a very brief appearance with musician boyfriend Bobby Jameson in the documentary film Mondo Hollywood, filmed in 1966. She met Vito Paulekas and Carl Franzoni, the leaders of what became known as the "freak scene" in Los Angeles, and by her own account became something of a groupie.
She met her future husband Frank Zappa in 1966 when she was working as a secretary at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. They married in a civil ceremony in New York on September 21, 1967, late in her pregnancy with Moon Zappa, born a week later. The marriage also produced children Dweezil Zappa, Ahmet Zappa and Diva Zappa. Gail Zappa was also an aunt to model and actress Lala Sloatman.
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