By Russell Flannery

Rutland’s write-in mayoral election was already a week over, and a triumphant Tom Donahue joined a business chamber mixer last Tuesday to press the flesh and thank voters. No surprise: his wife Gayle, a frequent campaign partner and prolific social media supporter of her husband, was by his side. “I wouldn’t be anywhere without her,” the incoming mayor frequently said during the campaign. 

The March 3 election wasn’t the first in which the two were closely associated in an important vote.  At a fundraiser called “Dancing with the Rutland Stars” in 2011, the couple were selected “fan favorites” by a Paramount Theater audience for their swing dance to “Jailhouse Rock.” They reconnected two years later, and married in 2024. 

Though the mayor himself “obviously gets to do all the hard decisions,” 58-year-old Gayle, a cancer survivor with a national career in the performing arts who is currently a high-school administrator in Rutland, explained in an interview with Vermont Daily Chronicle her approach to the mayoral race and vision of the role of Rutland’s first lady.

“I wanted people to see that there’s a good husband and wife in this community with a good family, and we’re going to stay positive and get things done,” Gayle said. “I think it’s very important that people see somebody in office who has a good relationship with the community, has someone who supports him or her as a wife or husband, and is someone who is a positive role model.” 

After more than two decades involved in teaching Rutland area youth, “a lot of them are now adults, and they know me,” she continued. “They see who I am as a person, and know that I’m very much a go-getter and a person who’s very much into making sure that people succeed in a positive way and a responsible way.”

The curtain formally rose on her new role as Rutland’s first lady on Sunday when Tom was sworn in at a ceremony at Rutland City Hall. The couple, both in their second marriage, brought together a combined family of five children and 13 grandchildren together for the ceremony. “We’re very family-oriented,” Gayle said. 

Gayle, unlike the new mayor who was born and raised in Rutland, hails from Lyndonville as one of five children in a family raised to be active in their community.  Her father Doug Townsend, who died in 2016, owned the Douglas Townsend Building Contractor, built more than 50 homes in New England and was also a chairman of the town of Lyndon who was regularly involved with charity work.  Gayle’s mother Ferne Loomis, a nurse and former school board member, passed away on January 6 this year.

Gayle’s early life wasn’t easy. When she was born, Gayle’s legs were turned in at the hips, and at six months, her legs and hips “were put in a cast in order to ensure her feet would rotate outward,” the Castleton Spartan reported in 2012.   At an unusually early age, she grew interested in dance.  “Ballet, as chance would have it, would be perfect for her and help rotate her feet properly, her doctor told her mother,” the Spartan said. The youngster joined a dance workshop at age two, and moved quickly into advanced training in Vermont and New York. She studied at the American Ballet Theater School in New York and launched her career from the Big Apple. 

At that time, it was unusual for somebody from Vermont to be a dancer in the city, Gayle said in the interview. “I used to have people ask me, ‘What state is Vermont in?’ No professional dancer, especially in New York City, was from Vermont. They thought we were skiers — that type of thing. I tried once and I was horrible at it. When I was dancing professionally, we had contracts that said we were not allowed to ski or skate.” Today, she is a National Adjudicated Dance Judge who over the years performed at the Grand Ole Opry and won awards such as “Petite Miss Dance of NYC.”

Gayle fell ill in the 1990s, and moved closer to family in the Rutland area. The treatment caused muscle damage and for a time required her to move in a wheelchair.  She recovered, and opened her own dance studio in Rutland called All About Dance at Grand Performance, followed by a position teaching dance at Castleton State College that wound down as Covid struck. Since 2017, she has held posts in the Rutland public school system – most recently as the main office secretary at the Stafford Technical Center, an important communication point for students.   

Gayle and her husband sat down after then Rutland mayor Mike Doenges’s shock resignation in January this year and agreed Tom should run for the vacancy.  “I was very proud of him, and knew he would be the best for that position and that role,” she said. Rutland’s new mayor, 68 years old this year, was previously elected to the city’s Board of Alderman, and has long held leadership roles in community organizations.  For her part, Gayle said she was ready to fill the first lady role in the city. 

“A lot of the first ladies have been great women” in Rutland, she said. “I feel like I’m a person who feels very comfortable in a public role. I love our community, and know our community members in many ways, so whatever I can do – such as bringing up a question from someone directly with the mayor – that’s absolutely the person I’m going to be.”

Gayle expressed worries about relatively low voter turnout in Rutland elections, and wants to help turn it around.  “It’s really important for me to let the kids turning 18 to know about voting. We’re losing a lot of the young generation who don’t register to vote. I remember my dad, when I was 18, dragged me right to City Hall and I registered,” she said. “I feel like it’s really important for these kids to know and get involved, do their research and homework, vote and have a say.” 

Gayle feels her long background in the performing arts is particularly valuable given current lure of social media to the young. “The arts are very important for kids of all ages because it gets them off the cell phones, it gets them off devices, and it makes them feel better and have confidence with their personality.”

At home with her husband after work, Gayle describes a relaxed, cheerful vibe.  Rutland’s new mayor “is quite a little comedian, actually. We laugh all the time between the two of us. Our personalities are very much alike. He can be very funny. We both break out a muse dance when there’s funny music on. But he’s also very kind and loving, and very aware of people and people’s feelings.  He’s very much a family man. We both love to be with our family and with each other.”

He’s also a “great husband” when it comes to doing housework together, she said. “He loves to mow the lawn. He really does. We do laundry together. We’re very much a great team. We call ourselves ‘Team Awesome.’”

For leisure, the two enjoy spending time together on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. “Tom and I ride together. We love it. I’m on the back.  If I had my way, I’d drive it, but it’s way too big for me. We go riding and stop at little coffee shops.”  

The two particularly enjoy going to spots in Maine such as York Beach, Long Sands, Short Sands and Algonquin Beach, she said.   At the beach, Gayle chuckled, she tans well because she is half native American. Tom, by contrast, is “all Irish and so he says that he makes my tan look better because he’s so white.”

If you’ve missed them in the past, it isn’t too late to see one of Gayle’s dancing programs. She is choreographing “The Wizard of Oz” for the Rutland High School Theater Department in June.  “We’ll be doing a big, huge performance,” she said, enthusiastically promoting Rutland’s arts scene — as promised. 

Russell Flannery is a former long-time senior editor at Forbes, lives in Rutland.