AntiqueCarNut.com

This story goes back a long way!! Part of the history of us, Glyn and Belva Verzatt. This ’38 Chevy Master 2 door was my first car and was I ever proud of it!! It was set up to run!! The engine was rebuilt with .30 or .40 over bore, aluminum pistons, dual intake and exhaust, flywheel lightened by 18 or 22 pounds and it might have had 235 powerglide rocker arms. It had skirts and full chrome hubcaps to set off it’s appearance!! I owned it when Belva and I were married in December of 1952, not long after she had graduated from high school. I didn’t get to drive it very long at that time, because Uncle Sam invited me to visit Korea with a bunch of other young men!!

Look at the lines of this automobile!! Are they not gorgeous?? The ’61 Impala convertible number built was 64,600. I didn’t realize until writing this article that the 1957 Bel Air convertible wasn’t the best selling Chevy convertible ever. Only 47,562 of them were produced. The owner of this ’61 must be very proud that it is his or hers possession. I took this picture at the Car de Lane car show in Cour de Alene, Idaho in June 2011.

Would you believe this is a 1930 Plymouth-extended version!! I was watching a parade of antique cars in Cour de Alene, Idaho in June 2011. I yelled at the driver and asked him the make and year model of this monstrosity and the above was his reply. Really a weird looking automobile!!

The Rockne was produced from 1931 to 1933 by the Studebaker Corporation in South Bend, Indiana having been named after the famous Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne. Prior to the Rockne introduction, Studebaker had produced the Erskine auto that due to price considerations as well as the crash of 1929 just couldn’t be taken seriously by the public and was dropped. The Rockne was developed to replace the slow selling Erskine. For the use of his name Studebaker made a deal with Knute to join the firm as Sales Promotion Manager effective March 19, 1931. Only 12 days later Knute perished in an airplane crash. The Rockne just couldn’t make it either in the U.S., so in 1933 all left over units were shipped to Norway where they were reassembled and sold. The picture included in this article was taken at a car show in Dallas, Texas in about 1978 by Jim O’Connor, the writer of this article.

A friend of mine owned this car and I knew at some point he was going to sell it and I wanted to be the buyer!! He decided to sell it at just the right time for me!! It would be my third college car and I wanted it to be really nice so I immediately had it painted the original Dartmouth Green[medium green], had beautiful seatcovers made and installed, and skirts as an added touch!! It was in great mechanical condition and served me well through the remainder of my college years. I sure wish I owned it now!!

The Franklin began production in 1902 and continued until 1934 in Syracuse, NY. In 1901, H.H. Franklin teamed up with engineer, John Wilkinson to come up with the air cooled engine. It just doesn’t seem possible that in 100 degree weather an engine running without water circulating could hang in there, but obviously it did until the company hit rough financial times due to the depression beginning in 1929! The Franklin was a competitor to it’s fiercest rivals, Cadillac and Packard.

When my wife, Alice, was growing up her dad lost a great part of his eye sight due to cataracts and although he had a nice 1934 Lincoln 4 door sedan, he just could not see well enough to drive it. Alice’s Mother didn’t drive, so the car just sat for about 18 years and deteriorated. Hence , Alice never learned to drive. In 1959, after 6 years of marriage, I decided that one way or another, she was going to learn how to drive, so I bought her this car and told her it was just going to sit in front of the house until she learned to drive, which she eventually did. The car was a two tone lemon and off white color with a leather interior.

I got the bug to own a new car in March of 1952 and one day while enroute from my hometown, Enid, Oklahoma, to Sheppard AFB, Texas, I spotted this medium gray beauty on the showroom floor of the Chevy dealer in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Other than whitewalls, full wheel discs and a deluxe hood ornament, it was loaded with accessories! It took Alice and I on our honeymoon through Colorado and also a trip out to and up the west coast and home to Oklahoma. The original tires had 46,000 miles on them when I sold it in 1953. My Dad, Ted O’Connor, is shown in this picture taken in Yellowstone National Park.

Immediately after college graduation, along with 10 other graduates, I became an air force officer stationed at Sheppard Air Force base, Texas. All my buddies were buying new cars, but I just was not comfortable with buying a new one, so I bought this 3 year old beauty from a long time friend who happened to be a used car salesman. It only had 32,000 miles on it and looked and ran like right off the showroom floor.

This was the second car I purchased. I bought it the second semester I was in college at Oklahoma A & M College. It never required any mechanical maintenance even after making many trips around Oklahoma for one reason or another and I owned it about 2 years eventually selling it to my Grandfather as he had totaled his car. As I remember I paid $450.00 for it and sold it to him for $350.00 to give him a good deal. The car was tan with red wheels.

I bought a loaded 1929 Model A 4 Door Sedan when I was 14 years old. It was black and beautiful-really a nice looking and nice running car. Financially, times were not good for my Dad when I bought the car and sadly the engine in his car cratered shortly after I acquired the Model A. Dad just didn’t have the money to repair his car so one day he said, “Jim, I hate this, but I just have to commandeer your car”, I just have no choice!! Dad was a fairly rapid driver and one day on the 18 mile trek to his sand and gravel plant, he hydroplaned the car on a culvert and when it came down after being in the air, the body broke in two just behind the windshield. We wired it up with # 9 wire and drove it that way for a couple of months until Dad found a coupe body with a rumble seat. The body needed a paint job bad and that is what you see after painting was completed. Upon graduation from high school, myself and 3 of my buddies drove this baby out to California and back to our home in Waynoka, Oklahoma. I sold it in 1948 for $55.00 at an auction in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Owners-Glyn and Belva Verzatt
Members of Capital Carriages Antique Car Club-Helena, Montana
Here’s our story as related by Glyn!! In the spring of 1997 [we think], Belva and I had been looking for a 1938 Chevrolet 2 door Master. It was this model I had when Belva and I married. Although we had looked for sometime, we had been unable to find a ’38 we liked. One day we started for Great Falls, Mt. and as we went by Mark Johnson’s used car lot on Cedar street, we saw a very nice looking ’52 Chevy. As we drove over the Cedar street overpass to find a place to do a 180, Belva said, “you just bought that car didn’t you”. I said I had to look at it first. Well, we did that and while I was in Mark’s office, he said,”Glyn, I think you just bought the car-your wife just moved over to the driver’s seat”!! Naturally, we had to think about it and took off for Great Falls. We stopped at a rest stop near Henry’s Creek and called the lot telling them that contingent on a drive, we would buy the car. It sure looked pretty, but we found out there were a few things wrong with it. Most of them have been corrected. 1952 was a major year in our lives. Belva had just graduated from high school. We were married in December of 1952 and the following week, I received a personal request from the President asking me to come join a bunch of other young guys in Korea!! I was gone in April!!