Gayle Vokes, a co-creator of the city of El Paso’s Gus and Goldie characters who promoted swim lessons and water safety, died Monday in Fort Worth a few days after suffering a stroke. She was 81.
Vokes, in collaboration with William Cowan, created the fish mascots around 1980 to promote the city’s floundering “Learn to Swim” program. What started as a couple of hand puppets morphed into full-sized characters, and an ad campaign that grew to include T-shirts, videos, stuffed animals, activity books and other merchandise.
The program was so successful that dozens of cities and swim clubs from around the country as well as a few in Canada and Mexico became franchisees of the popular program featuring Gus, the blue fish with the baseball cap, and Goldie, the yellow fish with the eyelashes and red bow in her head fin.
Wayne Thornton, a former city’s Parks and Recreation Department spokesman, called Vokes a “marketing genius” who shared Cowan’s passion for promotion. Cowan died in 2014.
“You can’t mention one without the other,” said Thornton, who retired in 2020 after a 42-year career with the city that included working alongside Vokes at their Lincoln Center offices. “They transformed the Parks and Recreation Department and put it on another level. They were better than Batman and Robin.”
Thornton called Vokes a special woman who was innovative, compassionate and trustworthy. He said she knew who to call when she needed a sponsor for a program, and that she always made herself available to help others. He said she is the one that suggested he be the liaison between the city and the Junior League of El Paso when it started its popular Midnight Basketball program.
Denise Alden, the oldest of Vokes’ daughters, recalled working with her mother at her office and on photo or video shoots. As a teenager, she was among the first, if not the first, to don the Goldie costume. She called her mother a smart, driven worker who could be funny, silly and crazy.
She said that her mother’s role in the creation of the Gus and Goldie program excited her and started a lifetime career for marketing.
“After that, it seemed that everything she touched was a star,” Alden said.
Megan Alden, Vokes’ oldest granddaughter, said her grandmother was very proud of her Gus and Goldie work. She said her grandmother often would share stories about the mascots and the commercials, and she had items around her house such as puppets and stuffed animals, and souvenir pens and watches marked with Gus and Goldie.
The Parks and Recreation Department also featured the fish mascots in a video to remind people about social distancing during the pandemic.
Clare Cowan, daughter of William Cowan, said Vokes was an outgoing person who knew how to promote, especially Gus and Goldie.
“She was dad’s right-hand woman,” Cowan said. “They clicked. They were both good at marketing. They could market anything.”
Vokes, the daughter of Ray and Mildred Edelman, grew up in Central El Paso and graduated from Austin High School. According to city records, Vokes was a city employee from 1970 to 1997. She was the interim parks and rec director at the time she left because of the health problems of her husband, Bill Vokes.
The two moved to Arizona before they returned to Texas. The family relocated to Georgetown, about 28 miles northeast of Austin, where she took a couple of successful sales jobs in the golf and custom homes industries. She was a national sales trainer and an award-winning sales director for American Golf Corp. The couple moved to Denton where she officially retired to be closer to family.
Denise Alden said her mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, but was still able to enjoy a full life. She continued to be an avid pickleball player and played a day before her stroke. She was transported by air from Denton to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth.
“It was a freak thing,” Alden said. “No one expected it.”
Vokes is survived by her husband, three children Alden, Dustin Presser and Kim Lessing, and her stepchildren Tim Vokes, Linda Meyers and Vicki Schweitzer, and their spouses; nine grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
Alden said that her mother would be cremated and that no services are planned. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.
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