The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/26/08
For an old-car lover, there's no more fitting final ride than in Tim Parrott's hearse.
Parrott, who with his wife, family and friends runs Parrott's Funeral Home in Fairburn, offers families of car folks the option of using his beautifully restored 1938 Packard Henney hearse.
 Rich Addicks / AJC | ||
| A graceful swan ornament that rides high on the front of the hood is a standard on most Packards. | ||
 Rich Addicks / AJC | ||
| The spare tire, with Packard stamped on the rim, sinks into the front right fender. | ||
 Rich Addicks / AJC | ||
| Tim Parrott, owner of Parrott's Funeral Home in Lilburn, offers families of car enthusiasts the option of using his 1938 Packard Henney hearse, which took 2 1/2 years to restore. It has the classic lines of a luxury Packard but the power and reliability of a modern Cadillac. The Packard Motor Car Co. was a builder of top-of-the-line cars. | ||
|
The car has all the classic lines of a luxury Packard automobile but with the power and reliability of a modern Cadillac.
As part of a 2 1/2-year restoration, the hearse was fitted with a Cadillac power train. The car is powered by a peppy 472-cubic inch Caddy engine, which is connected to a Turbo 400 transmission and a 2.78 Cadillac rear end.
It has a Dodge Dakota front end, seats from a Chevrolet pickup, air conditioning, power disc brakes and power windows. But from outward appearances, it looks for all the world as it did when it left the Packard factory.
In its heyday, the Packard Motor Car Co. was a builder of top-of-the-line cars.
The company was started in 1899 as the Ohio Automobile Co. by a group of men including two brothers who gave the cars a name — James Ward Packard and William Doud Packard.
The company pioneered many features used today, some as basic as the steering wheel (instead of a tiller) and others like a pressurized cooling system and hydraulic shock absorbers.
Packard offered a few affordable models and built engines for P-51 Mustangs during World War II, but the emphasis was mostly on building cars for the elite, which it did up until the nameplate disappeared in 1958.
That heritage makes Parrott's hearse even more special.
In addition to its service during funerals — four or five times a month on average — the hearse has become quite a hit at local car shows and parades, as evidenced by the growing collection of trophies on the shelf in the garage behind Parrott's chapel.
"We get a lot of calls and e-mails wanting us to show the car," Parrott said, adding that many who pre-plan their own funeral, including a good number of women, request the Packard.
Parrott, a longtime funeral director, has always been a racing fan and car aficionado, but he says he never considered a vintage hearse before his friend and old-car collector Jerry Nestlehutt drove up one day in a 1927 LaSalle to make arrangements for a family member.
"To this day, that's the prettiest car I ever laid eyes on," Parrott said.
The two continued to talk and soon Nestlehutt had talked Parrott into buying the old Packard, which was originally used by a funeral home in Indiana but had been converted to a pickup truck at some point and had been sitting in a field near Toccoa.
"It had kudzu growing through it at one time," Parrott said.
Soon the car was transported to Tommy Barday's Timeless Rides in Leesburg, Ala., where the restoration work was done.
Jerry Radekin, a funeral home employee and car collector whose daily driver is a sparkling red '53 Ford pickup that he restored himself, oversaw the restoration, traveling weekly to Alabama to check on the progress.
Now he's in charge of taking the car to shows and driving it in parades.
"Most of the trophies we've gotten are People's Choice, and that means a lot to me," Radekin said.
Parrott said he spent enough on the Packard to buy a couple of brand-new hearses, but he considers the money well-spent.
He said that when he uses the Packard, family members often gather around the hearse after the burial for group photos.
"For that brief moment, they forget they're at a funeral," Parrott said.
And in his desk are several letters from families who have written to tell him how much it meant to them for their departed loved ones to take their final ride in a timeless classic.
"To see people smiling at an otherwise uncomfortable sad time makes it worth every dollar we spent," Parrott said.
Vote for this story!