Glenda E. Gill was born June 26, 1939, in Clarksville, Tennessee, to Olivia Dunlop Gill and Melvin Leo Gill, Sr., a college professor and postmaster, respectively.  From her birth to the age of five, Glenda lived with maternal grandparents Sanford Lee Dunlop, a self-employed barber, and Lucy Tandy Dunlop, a housewife, in Clarksville, Tennessee.  She also visited paternal grandparents Arthur B. Gill and Ida Sykes Gill, farmers, in Somerville, Alabama.

At age five, Glenda moved to Alabama A & M College to live with her parents.  Around that time, as the result to vast exposure to the arts, she determined to have a career in the theatre.  At age five, she performed in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, and at age twelve, she played four roles with the Alabama A & M Thespians, directed by Dr. J. Preston Cochran.  Also at age twelve, she professed a lifelong faith in Jesus Christ and was baptized in Clarksville, Tennessee.

As a college student, she appeared in three more plays under the direction of Dr. Fannie Ella Frazier Hicklin, including in 1957 the plum role of Mrs. Phelps in Sidney Howard's The Silver Cord where local student Charles Ray played the role of Mrs. Phelps' son Robert. In 1960, Glenda graduated 'With High Honors' in English from Alabama A & M; the school offered no major in theatre.  For the next two years, she taught English at Councill Training School at Normal, Alabama.

Granted the Alabama Out-of-State Aid for Negroes and other scholarships, Glenda worked on a Master of Arts in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While in Madison, she acted in two plays—Brecht's Galileo and Thurber and Nugent's The Male Animal— with the Wisconsin Players.

In fall 1963, Glenda began her college teaching career at Alabama A & M College.  This first job was followed by faculty positions at the University of Texas at El Paso, Simpson College, Tuskegee Institute, Auburn University, and Winston Salem State University.  In the midst of the faculty positions above, on December 19, 1981, she earned the Ph.D. in Theatre and English from the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

She ended her full-time career on June 30, 2006, as a tenured full professor at the Michigan Technological University as professor of drama in the Department of Humanities.  Michigan Tech awarded her a plaque citing a "distinguished career," and she was recognized as Professor Emerita from the department.  This rank is only granted to individuals who have served the University with distinction upon the recommendation by the faculty, the Dean, the Provost, and the President. Later, in 2009 in Huntsville, Glenda taught theatre history and theatre appreciation for two semesters at the University of Alabama-Huntsville and served as dramaturg for the university production of Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy in 2011.

Dr. Gill published two books, White Grease Paint on Black Performers : A Study of the Federal Theatre, 1935-1939 (Peter Lang 1988) and No Surrender! No Retreat! African-American Pioneer Performers of 20th Century American Theater (St. Martin Press 2000).  She published over 40 shorter pieces in venues such as the Journal of American Drama and Theatre , Theatre Survey, The Eugene O'Neill Review , The Drama Review , Theatre Journal , On Wisconsin , The Normal Index Online, and the online publication eoneill.com.

She spoke at more than 50 sites, including the World Congress of Theatre in Stockholm (Sweden) and Dublin (Ireland), and The Eugene O'Neill International Conferences in Tours (France), Provincetown, and San Ramon.  She was a long-standing member of the American Society for Theatre Research, The Eugene O'Neill Society, and other professional societies.  In 2007, she gave the Ralph Ellison Lecture at Tuskegee University.  She held four National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Grants to Iowa, Yale, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Duke University as well as a summer fellowship to the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

On May 5, 2012, the American Society for Theatre Research published online an extensive interview with her, conducted by Dr. Charlotte McIvor.  The article included vintage photographs.  On September 22, 2012, the Alabama State Archives at Alabama A & M University mounted an exhibit on her life and work.

During retirement in Huntsville, Glenda joined the First Missionary Baptist Church on Blue Spring Road. In each community where she worked, she always found a church home.

She leaves to mourn five siblings:  Melvin Leo Gill, Jr. of Nashville, Tennessee; William Arthur Gill of Lithonia, Georgia; Janice Yvonne Gill Williams of Durham, North Carolina; Sonja Diane Gill, DDS; and Bonita A. Gill, both of Huntsville, Alabama.  Surviving cousins are Agrippa Davis Bass, Goethe Bebe Bass Love, Madge Gill Willis, Ph.D. (Dan), Connie Gill Williams (Myron), Malcolm and Forrestine Weed, Carolyn Nadine Turner, Ph.D., Gayle Turner, Jehuti Willis, Kisa Willis, Charles Cornelius, Wesley Williams, and Terra Strong.  Nieces and nephews include Marlon, Kristina, Michael, Darryl, Torraine, Syrena, and Haile.  Close friends, colleagues, and students across the nation will also mark and mourn Glenda's death.