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Mystery Photo #5 Identified: Mr. Ray Flowers and 1949 Buick Roadmaster
Eight photos now accompany this article, including the original Ray Flowers with Roadmaster picture, a photo of Mr. Alfred Flowers, and a photo of present owners Maxine and Bennie Antle and the car By Ed Waggener When I think of the great maroon 1949 four-door Roadmaster Buick Mr. Ray Flowers drove, I can't help but think of that look on the Germans' faces when they wake up, in that scene in "The Longest Day," and see all those Allied war craft ready to land. Folks would get a similar fright when they met the Mr. Ray's craft coming up over the Library Hill on Greensburg Street, sometimes taking it's share of the road closer to Jones Street than to the library. Eveybody knew the car might be making that rise, and they made room, so there were never any head-ons there, lending credence, once again, to belief in a Higher Power, if nothing else. Anyway, here's the longer, even prolix, story of the Mr. Flowers and the 1949 Buick. There were two winners in Mystery Photo Contest #5. Neither had the completely right answer, but both qualify as winners under the contest rules, which state: The winner may be selected for any capricious, whimsical, philanthropic, or even rational reason the contest judges deem appropriate. One answer came from Johnnie O. Prock, who wrote, January 23, 2005: I would like to try to identify the man in Mystery Photo Contest # 5. Could it be Dr. Leonard Jones?. He was a veterinarian and a legislator. Is the car a 1952 Buick? I don't know the location. Mr. Prock did correctly identify the car as a Buick, and he wasn't far off on the year. He did bring to mind a great man about whom more should be known: Dr. Leonard Jones. Dr. Jones was a very prominent individual, who was not only, at times, Adair County's only veterinarian, he was also a Kentucky State Representative. I'm told that one of his cars may have been a Buick like the one in the photo, but haven't had that information confirmed. Dr. Jones was Johnny O. Prock's step-father. Any photos, stories, or information on Dr. Jones would be appreciated. Another answer was sent by Ann Heskamp Curtis, who wrote, two days later: I am still working on the Mystery photo contest. With my mother's and Sue Conover's input, so far I've come up with: Herb Taylor (got to get occupations) As many remember, Mrs. Curtis had a great background in automobiles. Her father, the late David Heskamp, was the Oldsmobile and GMC truck dealer on Campbellsville Street in Columbia for several years in the mid-20th Century. The dealership was located where Steve McKinney's NAPA store, Adair Automotive, is today. Her father was also a Kentucky State Representative. For many years he was a partner with Jimmy Maupin in Grissom-Maupin-Heskamp Funeral Home. She was right about the make of the car. And, Herb Taylor does figure in story somewhat. The woods line across the street in the mystery photo was on his property, and the faint outline of the landmark plank fence is very faintly visible. Further, on the authority of Lynn McLean, who owned the Texaco Station where Ernie and Michelle Rogers have the Farm Bureau Insurance Office today, Mr. Taylor may have owned a Buick like this one. "But he was a Packard man," mostly, Mr. McLean remembers. Winner owned one of Columbia's memorable carsBut that was a digression. Apologies. Back to the story. The original question was:
Johnny O. Prock and Ann Curtis supplied the only two entries we received. We've declared them both winners. The questions were way too involved, and there's no full certainty that we have all the right answers now. Mr. Prock drove in from Colorado to pick up his book, but Mrs. Curtis leaves a little further away, and her copy will be mailed to her. Alfred Flowers fills in on his uncle's biography I talked with Alfred Flowers about his uncle recently. What I learned was a lot more about Mr. Ray Flowers, and a lot about Columbia and Adair County that I had never known. Alfred Flowers also told knew where the car is now located. Ray Flowers bought the 1949 Maroon Roadmaster Buick, which he bought from Collins Buick when it was still in Columbia, before the family moved to Hopkinsville to open another dealership which operates to this day under the name Collins Buick. The dealership was located one the west side of Campbellsville Street, in the buildings closest to Russell Creek. The car had a straight 8 engine, and a Dynaflow transmission. It didnt have power steering, Alfred said, and it drove like a tank. The Dynaflow transmission, one of the early automatic transmissions, meant getting underway was very slow, too. Ray Flowers' brother, Ernest Flowers, a farmer at Zion, owned a Buick Super, which he had bought the same year, Alfred Flowers remembers. The Buick Super was a slightly smaller car than the huge Roadmaster. Ray Flowers was the Postmaster at Columbia, KY, appointed soon after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933. He was postmaster until the early 50s, after which Mrs. Martin Rowe was temporary postmaster; she was followed in the post by Colonel Billy Wilson. Mr. Ray Flowers was postmaster in the building at the corner of the Public Square and Campbellsvile ST. That building today houses Wid Harris' Barber Shop and the real estate office. Some will remember the building as the one in which Casey Jones has his jewelry shop, or as the one David Wells Insurance occupied for so many years. A t a later date, the post office was moved into the building which housed the Adair Hotel or Hotel Miller, where the Courthouse Annex is today. Alfred Flowers remembers that Woodrow Blaydes (later postmaster), John Ingram, Kenneth Shipp, Allie Breeding Dillon, and James Royse worked t the post office as clerks while Mr. Ray Flowers was Postmaster. Mr. Ray was a car dealer prior to being Postmaster. He ran the Essex and Durant dealership, which was locted at the corner of Merchant and Campbellsville Streets, where a municipal parking lot is located today. Ray Flowers had four brothers: Ernest, the farmer at Zion; John, who was cashier at the Bank of Columbia; Dr. Woodruff Flowers, Alfred Flowers father, and who was one of Columbias most beloved physicians of all time; and Will, a farmer in the Bliss Comunity. Alfred Flowers ran a service staton once, behind Firestone. A Texaco staton run by J. Heber Lewis of Burnside, who was a trustee at Lindsey Wilson. Alfred Flowers said he used to service the Packards Mr. Herb Taylor owned at the station, but he didn't remember a Buick in Mr. Herb Taylor's ownership. After Alfred Flowers sold the Texaco station to Lynn McLean, he and his sons ran the Ford Dealership. They bought Adair Sales and ran it first as Smith Flowers Ford with Lee Smith and then as Flowers Ford, with Alfred and sons Robert, Jimmy, and Joe the partners in the business. Many remember that Mr. Ray Flowers often drove the old Buick Roadmaster, chauffering his brother John Flowers, the banker, on trips long and short. "John Flowers never drove," Alfred Flowers remembers. "he was somewhat uncoordinated. He (John Flowers) did buy a 37 Dodge, and loaned it to Billy Cundiff to go to Louisville to get refuges from the 1937 Louisville Flood to bring them back to a center set up in the old high school. Billy Cundiff totalled the car in a wreck at Shepherdsville and Uncle John never bought another car, Alfred Flowers remembers. Remember, John Prock had thought the car belonged to Dr. Leonard Jones. Alfred Flowers thinks probably not. "Doc Jones didnt own a Buick, as far as I can remember." "The car is now owned by Benny Antle of Russell Springs," Alfred Flowers said, and he recounted the last time the car was on the road driven by his Uncle Ray. "Uncle Ray had run into a pickup truck going up Jamestown Hill, and ruined the grill and a fender," Alfred Flowers said. The car was in his estate sale, and Bennie Antle bought it. Bennie and Maxine Antle, live in the Fairview Baptist Church area, east of Russell Springs, in Russell County. You couldn't meet two friendlier people than Bennie and Maxine Antle. I would have known this for a long time, before I knew who they were, I knew friendly people lived in their home.. Just from driving West on the Louie B. Nunn between Somerset and Russell Springs at Christmas time. Theirs is the big two story house with all the Christmas lights which dominate the winter sky at that point. Anyway, after Alfred Flowers told me they had the Ray Flowers Roadmaster, I called them, found out who they were, that she wasn't the Maxine Antle in Russell Springs who was Dr. Oris Aaron's sister, and that yes, I would be welcome to come see the car. I made an appointment, drove (or herded) the only vehicle available to me that day, our columbiaMagazine.com red Walkaway Bear Bus, to Russell Springs. Driving the Bear Bus, I easily the only person on the road whose Wendy burger approximates the value of my ride. Anyway, I easily followed the directions the Antles had given me to their house, and there they were and there it was, stately, almost regal, magnificent with it massive chrome grill pointed toward Columbia, almost as if it were ready to go home. The car had been painstakingly restored to near perfection by Bennie Antle. The Antles are the second owners of the car. "The car was wrecked when I bought it. I got it at a sale," Mr. Antle remembers, retelling, almost verbatim, the Alfred Flowers story of the accident which, years earlier, had put the Ray Flowers Roadmaster into retirement. "I came to the Flowers sale and some fellows asked me what they thought it would bring," he remembers. "I told I didn't know, but I came to buy it. It must have scared them off. They didn't even bother to bid. I got it for $1,100." He now has it insured for $10,000. Today, the odometer only shows 59, 054 miles. It looks almost like it did in Fatty Collins' showroom. Even the trunk has a new car look. There's minor discoloration on a few of the plastic parts, and some chrome pitting so minor that Bennie Antle has to point it out to notice it, but otherwise, a near perfect restoration. The left front fender had the worst damage. Other than that bodywork, the project involved mostly intensive detailing and clean-up. There it was: A successful gentleman's car. With it's Dyna Flow transmission, it's radio antenna which could be manipulated from the cars interior from it's resting or down position on the center post of the windshield, to it's up position to pull in WHAS when it was the great Gray Lady of the Air; and its elegant dashboard with big, easy to read dials telling the driver his speed, his reserve of fuel, and how the battery and oil was holding up. And a huge clock. And, of course, the car's trademark portholes. The four on the side mark it as a top-of-the line Roadmaster. Buick Supers had three, and I didn't learn how many the salesman's Buick, the Buick Special, had. What it didn't have were frills. This was not a sissy car. It ran on unleaded gas and testosterone. There was no sissy air condition, no sissy power brakes, and definitely no sissy power steering. But boy, does it ride and drive great, as Benny and Maxine attest. "You float as much as anything," Maxine Antle said, "and you just don't notice the speed. It's loafing at 80." Bennie Antle agreed, saying he trusted the car. "We wouldn't be afraid to take off today in it to visit Doyle in Austin." Doyle, their son and a Lindsey Wilson College graduate, now lives a far piece from The County, in Austin, TX. One of the cars Mr. Antle is working on today belongs to Doyle Antle. Its a Corvette which was Corvette, a 1978 pace car with only 600 miles. Besides the these cars, the Antles' restored cars include:
When the car was shown in Columbia, the Antles parked it in front of the Bank of Columbia. If a car has feelings, this would surely have given the old Roadmaster goose bumps. "I didn't think about it when we parked it there, but several people came up and commented that this was where Mr. Flowers would park the car most often when he was on the Square." Mr. Antle says it will like be there again, at a future Green River Kruiser cruise-in. More on the great Roadmasters I know what a great car the old Roadmasters were. My brother-in-law, Peanut McKinley, used to make the mistake of letting me drive his. They were built be parallel parked. They were meant to be launched on the open road, aimed toward some distant town, much as astronauts fly into outer space. They were just loafing at a cruising speed of 80 MPH; even at that speed, the heft of the machine gave you the feeling that nothing you could do could turn it over if you just kept it on the road. But the ride was like floating. Grover Cleveland Gilpin attests to the car's spaciousness and comfort. "Dad had a Roadmaster exactly like the one Mr. Flowers owned," he said. "He loaned it to me one year for a family vacation we invited J.C. and Sarah Jean Marshall to go with us. There were seven people in all. The women rode in the back with the kids, and there was plenty of room for us all." The kids were Mike Gilpin, and Larry and Jimmy Marshall. They were little boys then, but think of travelling in one of today's sedans, with seven people, and you get an appreciation of just what a great car this was. See Related Link: This story was posted on 2005-04-21 05:52:40
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More articles from topic Local History:
Cyrus reports: Parking meters and scofflaws on the Square, 1948 Four-year-old rides horseback 9.5 miles to Columbia in 1916 Cyrus sends City Council minutes: December 8, 1948 Reader wants help identifying 1934 Red Lick School students More LINDSEY HILL stories: Mark Twain; Donald Harvey; big worm Dr. Kenn Moss remembers Columbia High School days Etta Bell Bryant's hair trailed to the ground COLUMBIA HIGH SCHOOL 1951. Play cast: Here Comes Charlie A Dog Named Shepp Adair Soldier refused to apologize to the President View even more articles in topic Local History |
 
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