Here is Patty Flannery Stephens in 1965 driven by George Hurst in Riverside, California. Photo from Hurst Shifters Facebook page.

Before there was Linda Vaughn, there was “Perky” Patty that the race fans knew as Hurst Miss Golden Shifter. In 1965, Patty Flannery had just finished serving as Miss ARCA for the racing series of the same name when she was invited to have dinner with George Hurst, a genius engineer and marketing guru and was hired on the spot. Hurst paid Flannery $125 a week plus expenses, travel, food and lodging.

Hurst was a big man who grew up street racing in Philadelphia. He used to break the transmission shifts on his cars, so he built the sturdy model that became a staple in all muscle cars.

Patty was the first woman that George Hurst employed to market his floor shifter and speed products to the automotive marketplace. It was a marketing ploy Hurst came up with in which followed a basic formula, guys like hot cars also like hot-looking women. Put the two together and viola, Hurst shifters fly out of speed shops.

1965 turned out to be a whirlwind year for Patty. Her pleasant personality and positive image served her well. She rode in a ‘65 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, standing on a platform, gripping a small handle attached to a nine-foot re-creation of Hurst’s famous shifter. Clad in gold and black, the snug outfit resembled a tuxedo, which was a  design of her own. Perky Patty waved to crowds of ogling men at drag strips and race tracks across the country.

Her popularity and high visibility were brought to the attention of Car and Driver magazine, which named her and Shirley Muldowny among their top 25 personalities of the year.

Patty Flannery Stephens today. Photo from Madison Press online.

With all this promotional work, “Perky Patty” remained close to Hurst. In fact she called him “the love of my life” and said at one time the couple was considered “an item.”

Originally the Miss Hurst job was supposed to be a one-year gig. So when she handed the throne to Vaughn, who would end up wearing the crown for some two decades, Pat went on to other projects for Hurst and also served as Miss Atco and Miss Vargo, drag strips in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

She spent 17 years running a copier supply company outside Philadelphia and when her marriage hit the rocks, she reconnected to Hurst, who had always remained on the fringes of her life.

Word of George Hurst’s death came in May of 1986. Though he died in a car in his garage, it didn’t appear to be a suicide, a newspaper report said.

Patty was now Pat Flannery Stephens and in 1995, Flannery Stephens, who had been a pack-a-day smoker, received word she had stage four throat cancer. “I was told to get my affairs in order,” she said. It is a deadly form of cancer, particularly at stage four and patients don’t often live. But after several rounds of chemotherapy, she underwent radical throat and neck surgery at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital. Under the guidance of Dr. David Schuller the surgery was a success.

Perky Patty is still doing what she loves and will appear at the Arbors of London Cruise-In, from 4-8 p.m., on Saturday, September 22, in London, Ohio.