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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Drive Your Studebaker Day draws classic cars, young-at-heart lovers

Last Saturday was International Drive Your Studebaker Day.

Missed it?

To be honest, I wouldn’t have known there was such a day for the long-gone automobile brand were it not for two fun-loving senior delinquents.

Dan Brown and Kitty Johnson-Woods.

But as I learned from Kitty, Drive Your Studebaker Day was just the hubcap backdrop for the couple’s vintage car-themed wedding.

“It was his idea,” she said, laughing. “I wanted to go to Las Vegas.”

“It just got out of hand,” agreed Dan, with a sheepish grin.

Dan, 66, is a boat builder, mechanic and diehard lover of Studebakers. Kitty, 68, is a retired school nurse who loves her Studebaker lover.

Dan told me that he and Kitty have known each other four years. A real high point came one Christmas, he said, when Kitty got him this rare original clock for his red-and-black 1945 Studebaker truck.

“She can spell Studebaker. She got me the clock. I had to marry her,” observed the groom.

Told you they were hilarious.

Their Big Day began at 8 a.m. with a vintage-car caravan from Spokane southwest 50-some miles to the quaint farming town of Harrington, which also happens to be home to Allen Barth’s fabulous Studebaker Garage and museum.

The incoming rolling oldies, with plenty of other brands represented besides Studebakers, were shined to perfection. They soon lined the streets of Harrington for a car show to benefit the Inland Northwest Honor Flight program.

Then came the blessed nuptials, held inside Harrington’s historic Opera House and followed by food, music and dancing.

Did I mention the wedding cake?

It was topped with a black ’57 Silver Hawk that Kitty touched up to match Dan’s real-life Stude.

The collector cars left for Harrington from a grocery store parking lot off Highway 195. I was lucky enough to ride shotgun in Paul Leclair’s cream-colored ’63 Avanti Studebaker, one of the planet’s flashiest cars.

“As a kid the cars you noticed were the (Corvette) Stingrays and the Avantis,” said John Boyle, president of the local Studebaker Club and another Avanti owner.

There was a good reason for the attention.

Besides possessing sleek lines that look modern even today, the Avanti’s supercharged version could live up to the 140 mph imprinted on its speedometer.

Leclair’s Avanti has the supercharger.

And believe me when I say that he likes to make use of it.

“I’m old-school and this is old school-grunt,” muttered Leclair, a transplanted New Englander.

“This is not computerized with a chip for horsepower. You have to know what you’re doing.”

At a restroom break near Cheney, I said so long to Paul and jumped ship.

Don’t misunderstand. Leclair’s Avanti is as cool as it gets, however …

Dave Bowlin had room for me in what is arguably the loveliest automobile to ever grace a showroom: the low-slung and curvaceous ’53 Studebaker Starliner.

American cars in the 1950s tended to resemble shoeboxes.

Or shoeboxes with fins.

The Starliner looks more like a sleek jungle cat.

Its European styling came from Raymond Loewy, the father of industrial design.

Back in the day, Loewy’s genius influenced designs from Coke bottles to locomotives to Lucky Strike cigarette packs to Air Force One.

His relationship with Studebaker accounted for some of the most visionary automobile shapes to ever roll off an assembly line, the Avanti included.

Unfortunately, the Studebaker story has no happy ending.

The relatively small company couldn’t survive. Hampered by weak management, it was ultimately squashed like a bug under the boot heel of the Big Three – auto brands that could crank out many more models and spend zillions to woo the public via advertising.

Poor Studebaker never had a prayer.

But as Saturday proved, the quirky car line lives on thanks to some pretty strident fans. Or as Barth, owner of Harrington’s Studebaker Garage, explained:

“Strange people like strange things.”

Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or by email at dougc@spokesman.com.