Gail Sherman Corbett, sculptor, painter and art teacher, was the daughter of Frederick Coe and Emma Jane (Ostrander) Sherman and was born in Syracuse, New York. Her father was descended from Philip Sherman of Dedham, Essex, England, who came, in 1633 to Roxbury, Massachusetts, and afterwards, with eighteen others, founded the town of Portsmouth and the Colony of Rhode Island. He was the Second Secretary of that colony. Corbett's mother was a descendant of Michael Dyckman, one of the framers of the New Amsterdam Charter in 1623.

Gail Sherman was educated at the Syracuse High School and the Anne Brown School, New York. She began her studies in sculpture at the Art Students' League in New York under Augustus Saint Gaudens, George DeFor...