Beverley Bass, of Argyle, Texas, is widely known in the horse industry as the doting horse show mother of APHA World Champion and decorated member of the University of Georgia’s Equestrian Team, Paige Stawicki. Much like others with common interests, horse enthusiasts stick together and bond over their love for horses, which means long hours spent in the barn and at horse shows.
Oftentimes, more time is spent with horse show family than with blood relatives. The all-encompassing love of horses can cause a certain tunnel vision and life outside of horse shows is seldom discussed. However, horse people are some of the most multifaceted people you will ever meet. This rings true for Beverley Bass. Despite being widely known in the horse world, few know that Beverley was not only a decorated AQHA competitor herself, she was also one of the first female airline pilots and the first female captain for American Airlines.
Although riding horses ran in Beverley’s family, her love for airplanes and flying was inexplicable. “I was one of those kids who always knew what I wanted my job to be. I have always been obsessed with airplanes and when I was eight, I told my parents I wanted to be a pilot and they thought I was crazy,” she laughs. (Beverley pictured right)
However, her love for aviation was placed on the back burner while she hit the AQHA Gold Coast Circuit with her family from the age of nine until she left for college.
“When I was 16, I begged to take flying lessons, but my dad really wanted me to stick to showing horses because it was something we did together as a family. He was afraid that if I started flying, I would lose interest in the horses.”
After high school, Beverley left her home in Florida and ventured to Fort Worth to pursue her education at Texas Christian University (TCU).
“After my first year of college, when I returned home, I went straight to the airport and signed up for my first flying lesson and when I came down from that lesson, I told my parents I would fly for the rest of my life.”
Anxious to get the experience needed to move up in the ranks, Beverley took any job that came her way including flying for a mortician for five dollars an hour.
“It was just me and a body in the airplane. I would have to climb over the body to get to my seat,” she says. After many hours of corporate flights, working as a flight instructor, and a job working the night shift as a freight pilot to build her resume, she finally applied to American Airlines and was hired.
Beverley put in her time and worked her way up the ranks and eventually became American Airlines’ third female pilot and in 1976, she became the first female captain. “ I felt like a fish in a bowl because they had never had a female go through training in any of their airplanes. I was heavily scrutinized and I felt like everyone (instructors, trainers, the company, and my colleagues) knew and talked about every aspect of my training,” Bass told us.“I felt the added pressure when I started flying as the first female captain because everywhere I went, there were cameras following me and newspaper people wanting to write stories. I was under the microscope at all times.”
She could have never known that all of her experience would eventually lead her to Gander, Newfoundland.
9/11/2001
“Ladies and Gentleman, this is Captain Bass, we have been advised that there has been a crisis in the United States and we will be landing our airplane in Gander, Newfoundland. I will give you more information when we get on the ground.”
It was a beautiful sunny day over the North Atlantic for American Airlines flight 49 en route from Paris to Dallas. Captain Beverley Bass and her copilot, who was in training, were eating lunch in the cockpit when they heard over the air-to-air traffic frequency that back at home in the United States, a plane had hit one of the World Trade towers. They knew there was no inclement weather in New York, so the crash couldn’t be weather related. It was confusing to them, but they went back to eating lunch, unaware of the severity of what had happened.
Twenty minutes later, the feeling in the air changed as news of the second plane surfaced and there was mention of the crashes being acts of “terrorism.”
Then came the announcement: All US airspace was closed. Beverley knew this meant they would be making an emergency landing in Canada. She quickly thought of the bigger airports equipped to accommodate large airplanes and was certain they would be diverted to Toronto or Montreal.
Much to her surprise, At 50 degrees west longitude, they were given orders to land in Gander, Newfoundland. Baffled, both Beverley and her copilot looked at each other and in unison said, “Gander?”
With a population of 9,000 and an airport barely equipped to handle such large airplanes, it seemed like an outlandish choice. As they prepared for the plane’s descent into Gander, Beverley remained calm under pressure even though she faced the inevitable truth that there had been an unspeakable act of terror in the United States and the one thing she loved more than anything was used as the bomb.
Once all of the airplanes were safely on the ground, they were told they would not be getting off until the next day. After only bits and pieces of news from the outside world and 28 hours spent on the plane, 38 planes full of stranded passengers descended upon the town of Gander.
However, what the crew and their passengers didn’t anticipate was the warm welcome they would receive from the people of Gander upon deplaning. They were welcomed with tables upon tables of food and supplies that the people of Gander had stayed up all night preparing.
The bus drivers, who had been on strike, came off strike on their own accord to help transport passengers to the various schools, churches, fire stations, and other venues that had all been shut down in order to house them during their stay.
The hockey rink was used as a large indoor refrigerator for all of the extra food for the passengers and for the five days, the people of Gander prepared three hot meals a day for their guests.
The three hotels in town opened their rooms to airline crew members, who would travel from their hotels to where their passengers were staying in order to keep them up to date with the newest developments.
Meanwhile, the people of Gander invited passengers to their homes for hot meals and showers. The pharmacy filled over 2,000 prescriptions for free and a local store called “Shoppers” allowed their guests to take anything off their shelves for free.
Perhaps the most beautiful thing about the people of Gander was their eagerness to help out during a time of need and their lack of desire for anything in return.
In order to show their gratitude to the people of Gander for their kindness and hospitality, the passengers left over $60,000 in Gander and started a scholarship fund that is now worth over a million dollars and provides college education for each Gander High School graduate free of tuition.
During the five days spent in Gander, there was laughter, tears, confusion, frustration, and a myriad of emotions in between and lifelong relationships were formed during an experience that only those who were there will every truly understand.
It is all because of Gander, which has become known as the “the tiny town with the big heart,” that everyone was able to see that there was still good in the world despite the tragedy happening back home in the United States.
Come From Away
On September 11, 2011, many of “the plane people,” as they were nicknamed by the people of Gander, returned in order to honor the ten year anniversary of 9/11. While Beverley was back in Gander, she was interviewed by some young playwrights about her experience ten years prior.
“They interviewed me for four hours and I never even thought about it again until I was contacted four years later and found out they had made the whole story into a musical.”
Beverley and her family were invited to La Jolla, California to attend the premier of “Come From Away,” a musical based on the generosity and kindness of the people in Gander during the events of 9/11 with Beverley’s character as a feature role.
Bass has since become very close with the whole cast, especially Jen Colella who plays her. “I feel like I am looking at myself when I look at her. We have had a connection since the very first time we met.”
Although she has seen Come From Away 43 times, Beverley says she could watch the show every night. The show has become known as a 9/12 story because it is about all of the kindness that evolved post 9/11.
“My face hurts at the end of the show. It makes me so happy and it is amazing that a story about 9/11 can bring out such happy emotions. Of course, there are some sad moments in the show because that was part of the reality of what was going on in the world, but you never feel sad for long.”
The icing on the cake during this whole experience for Beverley has been sharing this experience with her friends and family, particularly her daughter, Paige, who is now a pilot for a private jet company.
The dynamic mother-daughter duo have shared many adventures together, traveling to horse shows and collegiate competitions, where Beverley was the resident “team mom” for the University of Georgia Equestrian team.
During their years showing horses, for the most part, Paige (pictured left with her mother, Beverley) was always the one in the limelight. The roles are reversed with their newest adventure, as Beverley is the one getting recognition.
“I feel like we are doing the same thing as we did when we traveled with the horses, but it’s finally my mom’s turn to have it be about her. Before, she took me all over and I was the star of the show and now this happened and I travel with her and she is a celebrity.
When people figure out who she is in the audience, she can’t get out of the theater. People stand in line to shake her hand, take a picture with her, get her autograph, and little girls are looking up to her. She deserves recognition for all she has done as she has been so selfless for so long. I am so proud of her,” says Paige.
However, Paige is still getting plenty of recognition, especially when people learn that she too is a pilot. “When people find out that I am a pilot now, they get so excited,” says Paige. Like mother, like daughter, the legacy lives on.
Since its opening, Come From Away has broken box office records in La Jolla, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Toronto. The show ran in Gander where 5,000 people saw it and all proceeds from the show went to charities in Gander. The next stop is Broadway where previews will start on February 18th with the big opening scheduled for March 12th.
Note from the author: A few lucky members of our horse community have seen Come From Away in various cities during its tour and plan to see it again as it heads to Broadway. Here are some reviews they shared with us:
Susan Juroe:
“The play is an emotional experience from start to finish about the kindness of human beings and how simple acts of kindness during tragedy can unite us. The portrayal of Beverly as an evenhanded hero during life or death crisis was overwhelming. The lines of the play were taken verbatim and set to music from an interview she gave to the director and press, and there was not a dry eye in the place. Pandemonium broke out during the post play question and answer session with the director when someone asked a question about Beverly and the director revealed she was there. We immediately purchased tickets for the Broadway opening. It is a play unlike any other I have seen with a transformational quality.”
Susan Juroe’s husband, Michael Schonbrun (pictured far right):
“I loved the music – a blend of bluegrass and folk. The relationships between the characters including a love story between two people not looking for love and the treatment of a passenger different than the others all added to the experience. Lots of humor too – a very welcome addition to a story, which is fundamentally frightening as the passengers deal with the unknown (why they can’t go home) and a strange place, all added to the experience. Live theater was exactly the right medium as well. Television or cinema would have lacked the immediacy. Well acted with good choreography.”
Mary Malsch:
“I had the privilege of sitting right next to Bev at a performance of “Come From Away” in Washington DC recently. All I can say is WOW. I have known Bev for about a decade and she had shared her 9/11 story with me and let me read her journal. It was amazing to see so many of her experiences come to life on the stage. The story and the music grip you for a full 90 minutes. I found myself reaching over and grabbing her arm during a solo musical performance that related the love for flying. We already have tickets for the NYC Broadway show in May and we are taking our two kids this time!”
Photos Courtsey of Beverley Bass, KC Montgomery
View the slideshow of more pictures of Beverley
