Gail Beth Appleson and Guillermo Andrés Rodríguez were married on Sept. 6 in their Shrewsbury backyard, where Rabbi Howard Kaplansky, rabbi emeritus, United Hebrew Congregation, officiated. 

Gail is the senior writer at The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the Wine Finds columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She also serves on the board of the Missouri Coalition for the Right to Counsel. Prior to moving to St. Louis in 2005, Gail lived in New York City where she served as Reuters’ national legal correspondent for almost 20 years.  

She is the daughter of the late Thelma and Herman Appleson of Memphis, Tenn. The Applesons were among the founding families of Beth Sholom Synagogue, the first conservative synagogue in Memphis, where Gail’s father was the first president. Gail continues to be a member of Beth Sholom as well as Kol Rinah in St. Louis.

Guillermo retired as director of International Projects and the Office of Study Abroad at Webster University. He currently serves as president of the Council on Foreign Relations St. Louis Committee and secretary of the Hispanic Educational, Cultural and Scholarship Fund of which he was the founding president. He is also an active member and past president of the Rotary Club of Webster Groves. In 2009, Guillermo co-launched Shalom Amigos, the Latino-Jewish dialogue group that is sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. Both Gail and Rabbi Kaplansky are members of the group. 

Guillermo is the son of the late Ana María Barceló Barceló and Guillermo Manuel Rodríguez Santos of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

Gail and Guillermo met in 2006 when Gail was a reporter at the Post-Dispatch and convinced Judy Sokol Evans, who was then the editor of the newspaper’s Let’s Eat section, to let her begin the “Wine Finds” column.  A Post-Dispatch colleague introduced Gail to Guillermo, a former wine educator, thinking he could help her with the column. The two have been sharing their love of wine ever since.

They had planned to spend their honeymoon drinking Champagne in Champagne, France, but due to COVID-19, are enjoying bubbly on their own lovely patio.