Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409070059
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-11 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
But when he and his wife, Mickey, took it to Pittsburgh, Pa., last month for the Professional Car Association's international contest featuring funeral cars and hearses, they doubted that they would finish near the top with more than 100 other vehicles competing from a variety of countries.
``I really didn't think that he stood a chance in this show,'' Mickey Seagle said, until she began examining at the other entries. ``I looked over all of them and I thought he ought to win. Maybe I'm a little partial to him.''
So were the judges. Seagle won first place.
``I felt quite honored,'' he said. The judges look under the hood, inside the vehicle and under it, he said. ``They even checked the tread on the tires.''
But Seagle had been as thorough as they were. He had even spent an extra $50, after he had the hearse restored, to buy replicas of the original screws used in the frame.
The hearse originally belonged to Seagle's father, who was in the funeral business, and Seagle remembered it from his childhood. In 1990, he found it in a junk yard, bought it and got all the necessary parts needed to restore it.
``It took us nine months to do the hearse, but I had everything here at my fingertips before I started on it,'' he recalled.
Since then, he has restored two other 1936 vehicles - a Jaguar and a Ford sedan.
While in Pittsburgh, a representative of a movie company filming a Hallmark production titled ``The Piano Lesson'' inquired about renting the hearse. But the Seagles were ready to come back home.
They hauled the hearse to and from Pittsburgh on a trailer, but it still got noticed. ``Truck drivers would go by and blow,'' Mickey Seagle said.
``Every time we stopped for gas or we stopped at a rest stop or something, you'd draw a crowd,'' said Oscar Seagle.
by CNB