Was there company loyalty with Hearses?

Nicholas Yassan

PCS Life Member
If you worked for M-M, Superior, S&S, or Eureka, did you ask to have one of the same brand hearse transport you?
It kinda would be nice if you worked for GM if they used a Cadillac, or Ford and Lincoln right? How far did brand loyalty go?
Maybe Funeral Directors had to have a special coach for their service?
 
True Story

True Story.... about Henry Ford's last ride being in a Henney-Packard.... I have seen the pictures. I think his staff (had they been a little more on top of it).... could have found and shipped in a Lincoln Hearse from somewhere?.... or at least a Siebert-Ford. Although there (may) have been a Lincoln "stashed away" at the Fair Lane Mansion for taking Clara out.... his last "company vehicle" to go to, from, in and around the various plants was a Black 1947 Ford 4-Door with a large low-band whip antenna on the left rear of the car. I have seen it on display at the Ford Museum. I think he was pretty frugile about all business matters similar to Howard Hughes before he "flamed out" in Las Vegas. Although I have seen a completely "clean breathing air filtered" Buick he owned in the mid 50's (mainly for the massive trunk size to hold all of the breathing apparatus) and an ocassionaly Cadillac in his movie star courting days.... (any and all) other H-H, Hughes Tool and Hughes Aircraft Vehicles were Chevy's. This included vehicles for executives, plant ambulances, fire engines and haul trucks. MM
 
That is a striking photo of the Hesses. I once spent a deliteful couple of hours with Bill Hess at a car show, and have two autographed items from him, which I will take to Piqua.

As for Mr. Hughes, if you mention his name to a Packard partisan, the instant response will reference the 1955 Caribbean he bought for the actress Jean Peters. She did not like the colors, so the car was parked with less than 1 K miles on it, and remained in storage for many years. One of the car mags had an article about it sometime back, when it re-emerged, that referred to the "air bag" suspension. Sigh. When I worked at the Packard Museum in Dayton, I used to give demonstrations of Torsion-Level Ride with a small hand-cranked wodden apparatus that Bill Allison, the inventor of T-L, had constructed to show the difference full-length torsion bars made, compared to coil and/or leaf springs. T-L was a great design that deserved a better fate, and would have been superb under an ambulance.
 
The information about Henry Ford's funeral is correct. In fact, in the preface of McPherson's Henney book it tells the story of the Ford funeral and shows a picture of the funeral and the Henney-Packard hearse at the services (page 5). Walter Chrysler was always fond of his Airflows and when he died in 1940, Chrysler Corp. found a Knightstown-built Airflow hearse, reworked it and this car was used for his funeral (see TPC #92 second quarter 1999). When one of the Ford brothers died (William Clay or Benson I don't remember which went first), they used a Cadillac hearse but, under the weight of his heavy bronze casket, the car's tail sagged. When the next brother died they used an AHA Lincoln for the service. I don't think any of the GM executives have ever had a problem finding a suitable last ride.
 
We have provided specific brands of cars.

As a funeral director, and a car nut, I try to pay attention to peoples interest in cars. Our current fleet is Cadillacs, however we arranged the funeral of the local Lincoln dealer. I called a friend who owns a funeal home and used his Lincoln hearse and lead cars for the funeral.
 
Buick Town...

Speaking of brand loyalty, it seems that a number of Flint, Michigan funeral homes used Buick based professional cars at one time. Richard and Brady can probably name a few of them.

Since Flint was once home of the largest automobile plant in the world, known to most people as "The Buick", it seems that it would have been fitting to take a ride to the hospital or cemetery in a Buick procar.

When the new Reigle Funeral Home opened in 1948, it was touted as being "built by and dedicated to the workingman and his family". Here you can see that they had a Buick ambulance. This photo is from an invitation that was distributed for an open house at the new funeral home.

picture.php
 
The information about Henry Ford's funeral is correct. In fact, in the preface of McPherson's Henney book it tells the story of the Ford funeral and shows a picture of the funeral and the Henney-Packard hearse at the services (page 5). Walter Chrysler was always fond of his Airflows and when he died in 1940, Chrysler Corp. found a Knightstown-built Airflow hearse, reworked it and this car was used for his funeral (see TPC #92 second quarter 1999). When one of the Ford brothers died (William Clay or Benson I don't remember which went first), they used a Cadillac hearse but, under the weight of his heavy bronze casket, the car's tail sagged. When the next brother died they used an AHA Lincoln for the service. I don't think any of the GM executives have ever had a problem finding a suitable last ride.

Benson Ford and Henry Ford II., are dead. William Clay Ford who owns the Detroit Lions is still alive.
 
Sorry about that. There was another member of the Ford family that preceded Benson and Henry II. That is for whom they used the Cadillac. I don't recall seeing what kind of hearse they used for Henry II. Does anybody else recall his services?
 
Back
Top