This column first appeared in April 2011.
In December of 2010 legendary Indianapolis children’s TV stars Cowboy Bob, Janie and Harlow Hickenlopper reunited for a special Christmas season event at the Irving Theater on Indy’s eastside. The event, filled with jokes, songs, music, and laughter, was capped off by 2-hours of autograph signings
At the December 2010 event, Cowboy Bob Glaze brought along the two most important women in his life, his mother Helen Liebengood of Yorktown, Indiana and his wife Gail. Interestingly enough, the Irving Theater event was the first time that Bob’s mother had ever seen her son perform as Cowboy Bob. His wife Gail, however, has seen her husband of 35 years perform as Cowboy Bob many times over the past 40 years. In fact, Gail, an accomplished flutist (or flautist depending on whom you talk to) has performed alongside Bob live and in studio and is featured on Bob Glaze’s CD “Bridges” as well as a rare album called “Cowboy Bob & Friends” that was recorded with the Burris Family at a studio in in Nashville shortly after the couple was married. But there’s much more to Gail Glaze than just Mrs. Cowboy Bob the flute player. Gail Glaze is a Hoosier pioneer in her own right in the field of women’s aviation.
Manual High School graduate Gail Butterfield met Cowboy Bob while working at WTTV-Channel 4. Gail, who is 11 years younger than Bob, was far more mature than her years might suggest. Butterfield spent the last two years of her high school career caring for her beloved mother, Dorothy, who suffered from a heart condition and a debilitating stroke. Gail’s mother was 40 years old when she was born and the daily caretaking responsibilities fell on the young shoulders of the serious minded straight-A student. She went on to work at Channel 4 as a film editor and within her first six months at the station, she met Cowboy Bob.
In 1972, Bob encountered Gail in the hallway of the old WTTV-4 television station on Bluff Road and later asked for a date. Bob related the story, “I was walking Tumbleweed in the parking lot and I saw her and asked her if she wanted to take a walk. She said yes, so I playfully hooked Tumbleweed’s leash on her collar and began to lead her around the grounds of the old Bluff Road station. I was just acting silly and she didn’t tell me to go away so off we went.” Gail reminded Cowboy Bob that they had met before but Bob could not remember the encounter. Born on Indianapolis’ Southside, Butterfield attended Indianapolis Public Schools 95 and 65. When she was 16 years old, she helped her dad, Bob Butterfield, set up sound equipment for the Crossroads Rehabilitation Center Easter Egg Hunt at the old Governor’s Mansion located at 4343 N. Meridian St. Cowboy Bob was the celebrity guest for the event. Upon meeting him, teenage Gail shyly shook his hand and asked for an autograph. The event drifted into memory for Gail as she went on to graduate third in her class at Manual, garnering honors as an accomplished ice skater and Job’s Daughter Queen along the way.
That first date resulted in many more, mostly horseback riding dates on the autumnal trails of Brown County. Bob was smitten but he had one last test for his new gal. On a frigid December day, Glaze invited her to go scuba diving in the Bloomington stone quarry, known as the “Ice Box” by locals, figuring if she accepted, well, then it must be love. Gail didn’t balk and accepted Bob’s polar bear challenge, but the couple could only dive in the icy water for five miserable bone chilling minutes before surfacing. As the couple emerged from the icy depths, Cowboy Bob knew he had met his soulmate. “It took me about 3 years to come to my senses but I realized that if I didn’t act quickly, I was gonna miss out on this wonderful gal.” Bob Glaze said.
While still dating, Gail realized that Bob’s birthday was coming up and began her search for the perfect gift. Little did she know, that search would change her life. After many failed ideas, she finally landed at Divers Supply Indy whose staff assured her that scuba lessons for both of them would be the ultimate birthday present. Not only did they talk her into the perfect gift for Bob, they also talked her into working for Divers Supply — a job that would ultimately be her springboard to a career in aviation.
One day Ambassadair founder, Captain George Mikelsons, and his flight crew walked into the dive shop. They all wanted to become certified scuba divers. Mikelsons was so impressed with Butterfield that he asked her to become an Ambassadair flight attendant on the spot. As an accomplished scuba diver, Gail was the perfect person to fly Ambassadair’s dive trips. She graduated from Ambassadair’s first flight attendants’ class in 1975.
That same year Glaze asked her to marry him while the pair were on an Ambassadair dive trip to Cozumel. They were submerged 30 feet when he proposed by writing on an underwater slate: “Will You Marry Me?” The woman he nicknamed “The Flying Fish” said yes. Today, an enlarged photo taken during that underwater proposal is on the wall of the Gallery Room in the couple’s southern Indiana home, complete with Gail’s positive thumbs up response.
Gail Butterfield and Robert Glaze were married on May 7, 1976 in an outdoor wedding in Brown County State Park. With Gail playing flute and Bob on guitar, they performed “Born Free” for wedding guests that included the bride’s adoring mother. Bob remembered the significance of the movie song as; “Our attitude was that yeah we’re getting hitched but at the same time we’re still independent people. Turns out we were joined at the hip and that hip was trust.” Bob remembered the wedding as “very seventies” and as a “simple, fun outdoor ceremony with very little money involved. Friends brought in food and flowers and we had a wonderful ‘Friendship wedding.’” After a dive honeymoon in Hawaii, the newlyweds moved to Bloomington.
Eventually, Gail left Ambassadair to become a flight attendant for Allegheny/USAirways. When she revealed her aviation goal to an Allegheny pilot, he took her to an airplane simulator in Pittsburgh. Gail Glaze was hooked. From that moment on, every moment of her free time was spent taking flying lessons at Franklin Flying Field in Franklin, Indiana. At first her new hobby had to be kept secret because when she first discussed it with Bob, she thought it was not well received. But she knew that this was what she really wanted to do and that she just had to find a way to make it happen. Her biggest fear was not the idea of flying a small aluminum trainer several thousand feet above Terra Firma, but rather that someone at the airfield might reveal her secret by gossiping how “Mrs. Cowboy Bob is learning how to fly and Cowboy Bob doesn’t even know!”
Gail realized that couldn’t keep her secret forever and her covert hobby would surely be exposed when it was time for her to begin working on cross-country flying. She had no choice, she would have to reveal her secret to her husband. Much to her surprise, upon hearing the news, Cowboy Bob was very supportive.
Soon, the Glazes’ were buying a 1969 twin-engine model Cessna so Gail could gain her required multi-engine time. The budding airline pilot spent a year flying light twin-engine aircraft for two separate charter operators chauffeuring around a veritable “who’s who” of influential Hoosiers including Sen. Dan Quayle and former Lt. Gov. John Mutz.
In less time than it took to drive a herd of cattle up the Chisholm Trail, Gail Glaze went from being an aviation novice to a certified pilot. She joined Comair, serving as first officer and then captain from 1985 to 1989. She soared to new heights in 1989 when she joined United Airlines as second, and later, first officer. Gail Glaze graduated to the rank of captain on July 8, 1997, no small accomplishment for a woman. Gail joined an elite group of female major airline captains in the traditionally male dominated aviation industry.
Nowadays, the green-eyed former Manual Redskin Job’s Daughter Queen, whom classmates called “Olive Oyl,” is known as Capt. Gail Glaze a senior pilot at United Airlines. Gail loves flying Boeing 737s and particularly enjoys the challenge of landing the airborne behemoths. “It’s pretty easy to do a smooth take-off. The whole idea is to fly as smoothly as possible. You want to rock the people in back to sleep. You don’t do anything that startles anyone. You can work your rear end off to make everything smooth during the flight but the only thing people remember is the landing,” she explained. “Landing is the most challenging part. But it’s also the most fun.”
Today, Gail flies the massive United A-320 Air Bus. After years of flying 737’s, Gail had to travel to Denver for 5 weeks of retraining to learn how to fly the new airships. Her schedule was erratic and she often worked six days straight. Gail planned to retire in 3 years when she reaches the age of 60 and wanted to settle into a less hectic routine at their beautiful split-level ranch home in Morgan County that is enveloped by seven heavily wooded acres. But that does not mean the galloping Glazes planned to settle down, “We recently inherited a 20-foot sailboat and I’m finding out there is a learning curve.” It was not uncommon to spot the happy couple sailing, windsurfing or rowing with the Culver Club of Indianapolis’ rowing team at Eagle Creek on the weekends. Cowboy Bob was looking forward to getting his beloved wife back and said, “At that point, we’ll probably get a baby airplane so Gail can continue flying off to Scuba diving retreats. We don’t plan to hang up our spurs right away.”
Al Hunter is the author of “Haunted Indianapolis” and “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide.” and the co-author of the “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Osborn H. Oldroyd: Keeper of the Lincoln Flame”, “Thursdays with Doc. Recollections on Springfield & Lincoln” and “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
