Thank you everyone I finally was able to get back to this posting and
read the feedback. I haven't had a chance to check the neutral wire,
but regarding this

On all GFI's I've worked with, the test and reset buttons are both
inoperative in the absence of power. The reset button will not "click in."

This appears to be true, the reset button does not "click in"

And yes I agree that my first mistake was assuming the original GFI was
bad. I didn't check it, but I had another GFI go bad on me recently
and it initially seemed to be the same symptoms, but lesson
learned....I need to be more thorough.

Thanks