1960's Lincoln Hearses

Jes Sellers · Post by **Jes Sellers** » Wed Dec 04, 2002 9:19 am

I've been wondering whether Lincoln Continental Hearses were ever made in the 1960's. I am a long-time member of LCOC and can't recall ever reading about or seeing any pictures of Lincoln hearses of the 1960's. Does anyone out there own one?

Danny K · Post by **Danny K** » Thu Dec 05, 2002 9:32 am

There is a funeral car/hearse repair & resto shop on the southside of Chicago. Drive past it every work day and noticed '70's Lincoln hearse's and flower cars. The shop deals with alot of southern states funeral customers. He ships used funeral cars. He did mention he sees alot of '60's & '70's sedans/limos at the funeral homes throut Miss. & Alabama. I'll try and catch him and ask about the '60's. Might be interesting......

jsanford · Post by **jsanford** » Thu Dec 05, 2002 5:05 pm

I had seen the pic but could not remember where. Now I remember it is on the Classic Lincolns site. Here is the link:
http://www.classiclincolns.com/sbt/sbt2.html

Jeremy

Jes Sellers · Post by **Jes Sellers** » Fri Dec 06, 2002 6:04 am

Hey Jeremy,
Thanks for posting the website with a picture of the 1963 Continental Hearse with a glass-rear section. Wow, I have never seen anything like it! I live in Cleveland, Ohio so I was surprised to see that it was constructed by the 'Continental Memorial Coach Sales, Inc. of Cleveland'. I will try to find some additonal history on this company to see if there is enough information for a future Continental Comments article. Thanks!
Jester

Willard E. Anderson · Post by **Willard E. Anderson** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 6:40 pm

Hello Paul,

My reaction was the same as your second sentence!

Sincerely, Willard.

PaulC · Post by **PaulC** » Wed Dec 11, 2002 12:09 am

I bet that car would drum up quite a bit of business if driven near a group of Lincoln purists!

Yecch!

hhmetal · Post by **hhmetal** » Thu Dec 12, 2002 8:35 am

Here you go...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1874712557

Danny K · Post by **Danny K** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 11:22 am

Finally made it to the shop. It's name is James' Professional Car/sales & service. Phone number 773-684-2882. Mr. James was out to lunch, but a mechanic on premise does recall seeing late 70's and 80's Lincoln hearses at the shop.No 60's though, but the owner could best answer that question. I'll try and meet him and keep all posted.
I did see a Caddy flower car from late 80's in his lot. The white Lincoln hearse headed to Miss., last summer, was actually converted to an ambulance by a coach builder and pressed back into service by a funeral home.

drcliff · Post by **drcliff** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 9:17 pm

this guy sent me these nifty pics, so i made a page on my site.
kooky, no?

drcliff · Post by **drcliff** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 9:21 pm

forgot the link!

http://www.doctorcliff.com/garage/fredscar.htm

W. Higgins · Post by **W. Higgins** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:11 pm

A guy in New Jersey has a '59 Flower Car that I've visited (which is a rare and unusual form of hearse, for those who don't know). According to him, the guy he bought it from said it was one of three '59's ordered for a funeral home in the Lancaster County area of Pennsylvania. The other two were a standard hearse and a limousine. The conversion company is unknown and the whereabouts of the other two vehicles is unknown as well.

mjabbasi · Post by **mjabbasi** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 5:35 pm

That '64 looks horrible. Almost an insult to the name of the car and company.

BrianOSU2000 · Post by **BrianOSU2000** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:48 pm

Being in the Funeral Business, I have seen pictures of that dreadful 60-something that has been described previously.

Lincoln hearses date back to the 1920's (Knightstown). Henny Motor Company reportedly built at least one Cosmopolitan Hearse in the 50's in addition to their limos on Lincoln and Packard Chassis.

One unusual hearse I know of was the one built for the exclusive use of Mrs. Henry Ford when she died in 1971 or 72 (I think). This car was reputedly built by Hess and Eisenhardt of Cincinnati in a record 36 hours from Continental to hearse as the funeral home used by the Ford Family had Cadillacs in their livery.

AHA built some nice looking and HUGE Lincoln coaches in the late 70's, but it was not until Sayers & Scovill/Superior (now owned by Accubuilt) came out with a Town Car based coach in the mid-80's that Lincolns actually caught on and became pretty popular.

The firm I worked for at the time had two 1986 Superior Town Cars which were very nice looking coaches. Eagle Coach came along in the late 80's as a sort of spin off of Hess and Eisenhardt who had built the Sayers & Scovill cars previously before selling out to Superior. Also in the late 80's, Collins Inc. Built the Miller-Meteor "Paramount" which was reputedly the largest coach available at the time. (Miller-Meteor is also now part of Accubuilt).

By the mid-1990's Lincolns were gaining prominence in the Funeral Industry as coaches and were built by about every major nameplate. S&S/Superior actually built the most varieties including the "Park Hill" and "Park Lane" which were commercial glass, using the taller, square side glass and custom windshield as opposed to the S&S Majestic and Superior Diplomat which used the Lincoln front doors and windshield. Federal Coach Company (an off shoot of the old Cotner-Bevington of Ft. Smith Arkansas) and Krystal also made their presence known in the 90's.

Today Lincoln has a roughly 35 percent share of the hearse market according to some industry numbers and as high as 70 percent of the six door "Pullman" limousines used in the industry. The Lincoln coachbuilders are under the nameplates of:

Accubuilt of Lima Ohio
Sayers & Scovill or S&S (America's oldest continuous coach builder)
Superior
Eureka (The oldest hearse nameplate although not in continuous production)
Miller-Meteor

Eagle Coach of Cincinnati (Amelia)
Eagle Ultimate and Ultimate Elite

Federal Coach

I am not sure if Krystal is still in business as I have not seen any of their ads recently.

Barry Norman · Post by **Barry Norman** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:00 am

I saw aand took pictures of the 59 flower car in Hershey about 25 years ago. As soon as I find them, I will post.

W. Higgins · Post by **W. Higgins** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:47 pm

Barry Norman wrote:I saw aand took pictures of the 59 flower car in Hershey about 25 years ago. As soon as I find them, I will post.

Interesting. I'd very much like to see.

TheLincolnForum.Net