Owner of Very First Mustang is Ford Royalty at Woodward Dream Cruise

By James Derek Sapienza - August 17, 2018

Gail Wise is what you would call a true pioneer, she’s kept the first Mustang in existence for 54 years, which is now worth $350,000.

For classic Mustang fans, there’s a start date to the origin story: April 17, 1964. That’s the day Ford pulled the curtain off of the world’s first pony car – appropriately enough, at the World’s Fair in New York City. It set off a frenzy that captured the American public’s imagination and caught the Blue Oval’s competitors completely unprepared. Within two years, it would sell its millionth Mustang.

But what about the first-ever Mustang owner? Well, she bought hers in a Chicago suburb a full two days before the car’s official unveiling. And amazingly, it’s still with her. As profiled in this recent USA Today interview, Gail Wise is still in love with the car she bought 54 years ago. Today, she’s the star of the festivities surrounding the building of the 10 millionth Mustang.

The newspaper caught up with Wise at Ford’s world headquarters in Dearborn. “It’s like being a movie star at 76,” she says. “I felt like a movie star at 22 when I bought the car. I mean, that was 54 years ago and we’re still talking about it.”

In April 1964, Wise was a third-grade teacher fresh out of college. She was borrowing her father’s ’57 Ford to get around but had accepted a job farther out in the suburbs. It was time for a car of her own. Her parents agreed to lend her some money, and she went to the local Ford dealership on a Wednesday night.

According to Wise: “I told the salesman I wanted a convertible, and he said, ‘I have none on the floor. Come into the back room, I have something special to show you.’” Walking into the back room, he showed her two Mustangs: A hardtop and a convertible. “He lifted the tarp,” she says, “and I knew that convertible was for me.”

The car served as her daily driver until 1980. In between, she got married and had four children, using the Mustang as the family car. When a mechanical issue sidelined the car, it sat dormant in the garage for 27 years. At one point, she even decided to sell the car. Her husband, Tom, also attached to the car, convinced her not to. He even went so far as to build an addition on their garage to open up more storage space.

In the 2000s, Tom Wise retired and set about making the world’s first Mustang roadworthy again. During that time, someone claimed to have the first Mustang sold to the public. Purchase date: April 16, 1964. According to Gail: “Tom came to me and said, ‘I think you bought the car a day earlier. And, sure enough, he went down to the basement and found the receipt and the owner’s manual. Sure enough, I had purchased the car on April 15.” And with that, the origin story of the Mustang came into sharper focus.

Today, the convertible looks just like it did back in ’64, and Gail and Tom Wise are royalty in the Mustang community. Her story is unlike any other’s. We’re glad that Ford has reached out to them to celebrate the Mustang’s latest milestone. It shows how committed to pony car culture the company truly is.