Glenda Gayle Hill

July 16, 1936 – August 18, 2026

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Her family can remember her with pride—as a pioneer, an entrepreneur, a Nashville original.

Glenda Gayle Hill passed away on August 18, 2026, at her home in Ashland City, Tennessee surrounded by her loving family. She was 90 years old. Gayle is preceded in death by her sisters Janice Owens of Abilene, Texas, Shirley Medaris of Dallas, Texas and her brothers Delbert Berry of Glendale, Arizona and Carl Berry of Abilene, Texas.

Just three years after she took her first job on Music Row as producer Glen Sutton’s Girl Friday, Gayle Hill rocketed to advertising superstardom by producing Dottie West’s now fabled “Country Sunshine” jingle for Coca Cola. It was the beginning of a role for Hill that integrated country music with national advertisers at a level of prominence never achieved before. Apart from West, Hill also hired many other stars for the Coke account, including Loretta Lynn, Sonny James and the Glaser Brothers. Hill went to work for Sutton in 1970, when he was producing acts for Epic Records. “When I went into the studio with Glenn,” she says, “it sparked an instant love affair with the recording process.”

In 1973, she formed G Hill & Company, initially a PR agency that produced jingles on the side. “At first, I thought I would starve. Then Coca Cola called me.” After that, she became a go-to-jingle producer for GMC, Miller Beer, Kraft, Rubbermaid, Stouffer’s, Pizza Hut, and Mellon Bank, among many others. Hill’s ability to link national advertisers with country artists and music earned her executive positions on the boards of CMA and NARAS (now the Recording Academy). She remained in the thick of advertising until she began noticing she was working with people half her age and having far less joy doing it. “I didn’t quit cold turkey. I just kind of phased out. In our business, you either leave it or it leaves you.”

A career can be measured in companies founded, campaigns completed, professional offices held, and honors received. Gayle’s career deserves all of those measures. But a life is also measured in the people who remember it: family, friends, colleagues, artists, writers, musicians, and the younger women who inherited a music business changed by those who came before them.

Gayle Hill’s name may have appeared behind the music, but her imagination, determination, and ear were present in the music itself. She helped give country music a new place in American culture. Her family can remember her with pride—as a pioneer, an entrepreneur, a Nashville original.

Gayle is survived by her sister Joyce Johnson (Chuck) of Denver, Colorado. Her son, Bob Hill (Stephanie Reeves) of Ashland City, Tennessee. Grandchildren Lora Criner of Lebanon, Tennessee, Robert Hill of Nashville, Tennessee and Gabriel Hill and Tonya Gentry of Chattanooga, Tennessee as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

Donations can be made to Alive Hospice (https://alivehospice.org/) whose care and compassion for Gayle and her family during this time goes without saying. We are forever grateful.

There will be a Celebration of Life on Saturday, September 26 at 1025 Ed Burgess Road starting at 1:30pm. Fellowship immediately following Celebration at Gayle’s home.

The staff of Nashville Cremation Center is honored to serve the family of Glenda Gayle Hill, age 90 of Ashland City, TN.