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BEHIND THE WHEELS
THE LAUNCH OF THE
THUNDERBIRD ERA • By Richard Greene
Bob Sherwood’s ‘55 Chevy Bel Air convertible was, is, and always will be a classic Dawn Stacy stands with her 1955 Ford Thunderbird, which she Photos: Richard Greene
and her husband Howard purchased some 10 years ago. They repainted it and replaced the seats, but, otherwise, this head turner looks as it did when it came off the assembly line.
Photos: Richard Greene
B
ill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” becomes the first rock and roll single to reach Number One on the charts, Disneyland opens in California, “Gunsmoke” debuts on CBS, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the Yankees to win the World Series, Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to surrender her seat on a bus, and the Ford Motor Company launches the Thunderbird. It was 1955 and Ford’s plans to compete with Chevrolet’s Corvette, introduced two years earlier, was an instant hit, outselling the Vette with 3,500 orders placed in the first 10 days of sales. Ford planned a total of 10,000 of the sporty twoseaters but wound up selling 16,155 of them before the year ended. Estimates are that less than half of them remain today, fewer still in original condition, and Dawn Stacy has one of them.
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ARLINGTON TODAY • May 2021 • arlingtontoday.com
While asking her to describe her experience with the classic T-Bird during our interview in the Kennedale High School parking lot, an excited passerby pulled up with her youngster, delightedly looked it over, asked a bunch of questions, and had her picture taken with it. “That happens all the time,” Dawn explains. “People are always taking notice when we have it out and about. The very first car show we took it to, it won first place even before we had done any work to it. “We acquired it about 10 years ago, and my husband called it a “10-footer” – the paint had crazed, but you didn’t see that until you got up close. It drove great so we decided not to do anything for a while, and then all we did a few years later was have it repainted, and we redid the seats. “Friends have asked us about adding air conditioning,
