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FIRST OF TEN MILLION: The owner of the very first Mustang ever sold still has the car in her garage

Written by Barbara Toombs   The Wise family in 1979, in front of their Illinois home with the very first Mustang ever sold to the public.   Gail Wise was just 22 years old and living at home with her parents, Helen and Cleadis Brown, on the northwest side of Chicago. When she landed a job as third-grade teacher in the suburbs, she persuaded them to lend her the money for a new car. The Browns were a Ford family, so off to the local Ford dealer they went. Gails heart was set on a convertible, and she was let down when she saw none on the showroom floor. Seeing the look of disappointment on the young ladys face, the salesman took pity, saying he had something to show her in the back room. There, hidden under tarps, were hardtop and convertible models of the brand-new Ford Mustang, sent to Ford dealers around the country in anticipation of Lee Iacocca unveiling the car to reporters at the New York Worlds Fair on April 13, 1964. I didnt even look at the hardtop, Gail confesses. I knew that convertible was for me. My favorite color is red, but I fell in love with that Skylight Blue. So, on April 15, 1964 two full days before Henry Ford II officially unveiled the car to the masses Gail drove off in her new Mustang, the first ever sold to the public. I felt like a movie star, she remembers. But it wasnt me it was the car. Tom and Gail Wise with the 10 millionth Mustang at the Edsel Ford Estate in August 2018. They even got to ride in the history-making vehicle! Two years later, Gail married Tom Wise (who, laughing, declined to comment whether the Mustang played a role in their courtship). The couple bought a house and went on to have four children, using that Mustang as a family car for 15 years. If we went out, all six of us, Gail recalls, Id put the youngest on my lap back then you didnt have to have seatbelts on everyone! After a minor problem with the car in 1979, Tom pushed it into their garage, telling his wife hed fix it next week. Well, next week turned into 27 years, when Tom decided to restore the car as a retirement project in 2006-07. He did much of the work himself. In 2015, when Ford was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mustang, the Wises took their car to a Mustang Club of Southeast Michigan show on the grounds of Ford Motor Company in Dearborn. We always had the paperwork for the car, Tom says. Some of the Ford executives came by, and things just kind of mushroomed after that! The two were invited to be Fords guests on August 8, 2018, for the celebration of the 10 millionth Mustang produced, and even got to ride in the history-making vehicle. As for Gail, she never had any regrets about her first car purchase. It was affordable, it was a convertible, and it had all the bells and whistles for the time, she says. Little did she know the car (which is not currently for sale) would become an important piece of Ford history.

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