Gayla Ann Gaskin

Gayla Ann Gaskin was born September 15, 1959 in Dallas, Texas. She passed away June 22, 2022 at her home in Yukon, Oklahoma. Gayla attended L.D. Bell High School in Hurst, Texas where she was an active member of the Rodeo Club. Her event was bull riding, and she was very successful, winning many trophies. She also represented the Rodeo Club in many Rodeo Queen contests.

At fifteen, Gayla interviewed for a job at DFW Airport. She was informed her parents made too much money for her to qualify for this job, to which her response was, “I can’t help that my mother wasn’t a fry cook and my father a garbage collector!” Her interviewer was so impressed that she got the job. After just two days of working for the air traffic director she knew she was going to become an air traffic controller. So her destiny was set at the age of fifteen!

At nineteen, Gayla enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served for four years, serving as an air traffic controller. She was discharged from the Air Force and before her twenty-first birthday, was hired as the first female air traffic controller at DFW Airport. She received many awards for her excellent work. After thirty years, she retired from DFW Airport and began work as a trainer at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma. Gayla had recently retired from that job.

Gayla was a kind and caring person, and loved doing for others. She had a wonderful sense of humor and could tell a good joke. She had a strong personality, was self-motivated, independent and was a true, true friend. Her neighbors remember her as the tiny woman with the huge dog!

Gayla was preceded in death by her father, Joe Alan Gaskin. Surviving family members include mother, Michaelene Baker; brother, Joe Parks Gaskin; step-siblings, Terri, Janet & Chuck Baker and a host of cousins, nieces, nephews, extended family and friends.

She will be missed.

A memorial service honoring Gayla’s life will be held 11 A.M., Saturday, August 6, 2022 at First United Methodist Church, Centerville, Texas. All are invited to a dinner in the fellowship hall of the church following the service.