From Plain to Plane

Famous Shunned Mennonite's Daughter Finally Breaks Her Decades-Long Silence

In 1972, Patty Bear’s father, Robert Bear, was excommunicated from their church and subsequently shunned by members including Gale, his wife. For Amish and Old Order Mennonites, known as “Plain People”, shunning is a biblical practice meant to bring wayward members back into the community’s fold.

But Robert Bear was enraged. Within months, the tranquil life Patty and her five siblings had enjoyed on a bucolic Pennsylvania farm was upended as their father’s anger gave way to abuse.

Raised to be a silent, submissive, and obedient Mennonite woman, Gale stoically turned the other cheek as Robert hit, humiliated, and gaslighted her. Even as Robert’s tactics escalated to tormenting Patty and her siblings, depriving the family of money and food, tirading publicly against them and hiring a PR agency to portray him as a presumed victim, Gale and the children remained silent. The campaign garnered explosive news coverage: Good Morning America, People Magazine, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The New York Times were among the dozens of outlets that portrayed Robert as an innocent victim of a coldhearted wife and a misguided church.

In From Plain to Plane: My Mennonite Childhood, a National Scandal, and an Unconventional Soar to Freedom, Patty Bear reveals the truth about what the Bear family silently endured for decades and how she managed to break free - ultimately entering the US Airforce Academy and becoming one of a tiny percentage of female pilots and airline captains. Her story illustrates how trauma can sometimes be a path to liberation. Equal parts vivid and dark, heartbreaking and heroic, From Plain to Plane demonstrates abusers’ insidious methods, how easy it is to manipulate public opinion, and the resounding power of speaking up.