When Gladys O'Donnell took her first flying lesson from her instructor husband, there seemed to be some debate as to "which way was up". As she described it, "being quite ordinary people with the usual husband/wife complex, we spent the entire first lesson arguing about which way was up. For the next six weeks I sat with folded hands and watched others fly. Then it became necessary to hire another instructor to assist with the students and, Eureka, my chance! In a couple of months I was ready to solo. When the great day arrived everybody ran and hid in the hangar while I clattered forth behind the thundering ox. To the astonishment of everybody, nothing unusual happened. Nothing unusual ever happened to me in those days." But by 1937 Gladys had take to honors in 29 competition events with both men and women.

Gladys married Jim O'Donnell at age 17 in 1921 and had two children. Jim operated the O'Donnell School of Aviation in California, and Gladys decided in 1929 to learn to fly. With less than 46 hours time, she entered the first Women's Air Derby that year and came in second.

Having reached Cleveland at the Derby conclusion, she stayed to enter several events in the National Air Races taking place there and won.

To her, "to linger" meant "to enter". In 1930 she won the Pacific Women's Air Derby, a race from Long Beach, California, through the Southwest and Midwest to Chicago. She flew a yellow and red Waco Taperwing, averaging a speed in excess of 150 mph.

Once in Chicago, she again lingered and competed in the National Air Races, winning again.

Gladys found flying "a source of inspiration and pleasure". But she had many other interests. A friend said "she made each day a piece of elastic in her hands - she stretched it to almost any limit." She performed on a radio program, entitled "Sky Doings" in the 30's. She later was President of the National Federation of Republican Women and was delegate or alternate to many Republican National Conventions from 1936 to 1960. She was co-owner of O'Donnell Oil Co., co-founder of Hydro-Test Tubing Service and a flight instructor during WWII. She was the first woman to fly in the movies, as one of the pilots in the film, "White Sister".

Gladys died in 1973 at age 69. Having found the way up, she certainly knew how to stay there.