Gail Wise bought the first Ford Mustang sold in the U.S.; 60 years later, she still owns it

In the spring of 1964, Gail Wise taught third grade at Sunnyside Elementary School in Berkeley, Illinois, a small suburb just east of Elmhurst. She was still Gail Brown then, loved her job, but it was a dozen miles south from where she lived with her parents in Park Ridge.

“Back then you lived at home until you got married,” she remembered.

At 22 years old, she couldn’t expect to drive her parents’ car forever. She needed her own.

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So on Wednesday, April 15, 1964, she and her father went to Johnson Ford on Cicero Avenue in Chicago — her family always drove Fords. Her father had driven a ’57 Fairlane 500, then a ’63 Thunderbird.

“My parents always drove a convertible,” she said. “I just knew I wanted a convertible.”

But there were no convertibles on the showroom floor. When the salesman saw Brown’s disappointment, he took pity on her, and said they had something special in back. They weren’t supposed to sell it yet, but she could take a look. He pulled a tarp off a Mustang convertible in “Skylight Blue.” No Mustangs would officially go on sale for two days, until after it was unveiled at the New York World’s Fair on April 17. If she wanted this one, she’d have to buy it without a test drive. She did want it.

“I just fell in love. It was sporty. It had the bucket seats, the transmission on the floor,” she said. “He started it up. It went zoom zoom and made that nice, loud noise. I was just so excited to buy it. I was in heaven. I told the salesman it was for me.”

A yellowing bill of sale for the first Ford Mustang sold in the United States is set in a black picture frame. — The bill of sale for the Ford Mustang Gail Wise bought April 15,1964 — the first Mustang ever sold in the United States, two days before its official debut. The bill was corrected by hand to call it a 1965 Mustang, though car enthusiasts sometimes refer to early Mustangs like this one as “1964 1/2" models.

Some aspects of the car might surprise today — the Mustang had seat belts in the front seats but not the back. The passenger seat could not be adjusted. Back-up lights were optional.

The price was $3,447.50. Her salary was $5,000 a year. Her father loaned her the money.

Making Gail Wise the first person in the United States to buy a Ford Mustang — 60 years ago on Monday.

“When I drove out of the showroom, nobody had seen this car yet,” she recalled. “Everybody was waving at me, asking me to slow down, so they could see this car. I felt like a movie star. I was very happy. I drove it to school the next day. All those boys, the seventh and eighth graders, were hovering over it.”

She drove that Mustang for 15 years. She married Tom Wise, an electronics technician who worked on the guidance system on a nuclear submarine in the Navy, in 1966. The couple moved to Charleston, South Carolina. Their four kids arrived, and she gave up teaching.

“When you were married, you started a family and stayed home with the children,” she said.

The Wise family, two adults and four children, sit on or stand near their light colored, then-aging "1964 1/2" — actually 1965 — Ford Mustang parked under a tree in front of a suburban house. From left: Michael, Gail, Tom, Tim, Laura and Sally. — Just before the Wise family pushed their “1964 1/2" — actually 1965 — Mustang into the garage for 27 years, the family posed with it by their Park Ridge home. From left: Michael, Gail, Tom, Tim, Laura and Sally.

They eventually moved back to Park Ridge after Tom left active service in the Navy. The car became part of the daily fabric of their lives.

“We used to take the kids to ride, go to McDonald’s,” she said. The family just fit — three in the back and the youngest one on her lap. “Back then you could do that. It was a fun time.”

The Mustang is iconic, but it was also an automobile enduring Chicago’s harsh winters. The body rusted. The engine started acting up.

“I had a little bit of [a] problem with it in the late ‘70s,” said Tom. “I was driving it as a daily driver. The linkage to the carburetor from the gas pedal froze. I pushed it into the garage and said I would work on it next week. The car sat there for 27 years.”

A restored 1964 1/2 (actually 1965) light blue Ford Mustang sits outside the closed garage of its only owners, Gail and Tom Wise, in Park Ridge, Illinois. — The first Ford Mustang ever sold in the U.S. sits outside the home of its only owners, Gail and Tom Wise, in Park Ridge. Tom built an addition to the garage so they could hold on to the car while it sat idle for 27 years, until Tom got to work restoring it.

Gail would have happily scrapped it.

“I’d complain, ‘Get rid of this. We can’t drive it; it’s taking up space,’” she said. “He said ‘No, that’s my retirement project.’ He built an addition onto our two-car garage so he could keep the Mustang.”

Tom retired at 60. A few more years passed.

“In late 2005, I told my wife, we either sell the car as is or restore it,” said Tom. “We decided to restore it.”

Memorabilia including the original spare tire, license plates and the owner's manual are displayed in the trunk of a light blue restored 1965 Ford Mustang. — Memorabilia including the original spare tire, license plates and the owner’s manual are displayed in the trunk of Gail and Tom Wise’s restored Ford Mustang, the first ever sold in the United States.

A big job.

“It was pretty badly rusted out,” said Tom. “I’m a pretty good mechanic, but I’m not a body and fender guy. I took the car all apart, took the engine out, the transmission out. The only thing that remained were the four wheels and the steering wheel.

“I looked at it and thought, ‘How’s he ever going to get that back together again?’” said Gail. “It was amazing to me.”

Tom took the car to Greg’s Auto Body in Lake Bluff. The body and fender work took almost a year. Meanwhile the engine and the transmission were being refurbished in North Chicago. He put in new upholstery and one custom detail — a horn that sounds like a whinnying horse, complete with hoofbeats.

All told, Tom estimates he spent $35,000 refurbishing the Mustang.

“I’ve always been a car guy,” he explained. “I would never say I’m in love with this car. It was a project.”

The gleaming steering wheel and dashboard of a restored 1965 Ford Mustang. — While restoring the Ford Mustang his wife bought 60 years ago, Tom Wise added one custom flourish — a horn that sounds like a whinnying horse, complete with hoofbeats.

In 2008 the Mustang was finally finished, and Tom went on the internet, looking for information.

“I ran across a couple stories about a man in Wauconda who claimed he had the first Mustang that was sold. I told my wife, look at our papers. I knew she bought it early. The purchase date of our car was one day before his.”

That made it a big deal. Not the first Mustang sold in the world; one had been purchased in Newfoundland a few hours before Gail bought hers. But the first sold in the U.S.

“We were invited to Dearborn by the Mustang Club,” said Tom. “We met one of the big shot writers from Ford, got to talking. The story started to be a big balloon. It started expanding. Ford concluded this was the first retail sale of a Mustang.”

“Once Ford recognized us, we got a lot of interviews,” said Gail.

A century of Ford cars made at Torrence Avenue

The pristine restored engine under the hood of a light blue 1964 1/2 — actually 1965 — Ford Mustang. — The pristine restored engine of the first Ford Mustang ever sold in the United States.

They’ve appeared at the Chicago Auto Show and various Mustang Club shows. In 2013, Tom got the car up to 70 mph on the track of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at an event unveiling the latest Mustang. Ford brought them to Dearborn in 2018 to help celebrate the 10 millionth Mustang sold.

Otherwise they rarely drive it — daily trips are handled by a Ford Edge. “We have to be a Ford family now,” said Tom.

A pristine 1965 Mustang can sell for $50,000, and this one might be worth anywhere from two to 10 times that amount.

None of their four children has expressed a particular interest in the car.

“I don’t think any of them can afford to buy it, by themselves,” said Gail. The couple suspects their kids will sell it and split the proceeds.

A view in front of the grill of a restored light blue 1965 Ford Mustang convertible, with trees and blue sky in the background. — Gail Wise bought this Ford Mustang convertible, the first Mustang ever sold in the United States, in April 1964.

It’s exceedingly rare for one person to own a car for 60 years. Then again, Tom and Gail Wise are enjoying the golden years of a blessed life. They have five grandchildren, and three of their four kids live within a mile.

“I could ride my bike over,” said Gail. One son lives in Florida.

Still, time has definitely gone by.

“I got in the car real easy 60 years ago,” quipped Gail, climbing behind the wheel of her Mustang recently. “We’ve been married 58 years. When I think about it, I say, ‘Wow, we’ve been fortunate.’”

Promotional photo released by Ford at the introduction of the Mustang. — A promotional photo released in 1964 at the time the Ford Mustang was introduced.

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