This is my great grandmother Sue, walking up the path to our front door one sunny day in about 1971. That’s her 1967 Ford LTD parked curbside.
Sue was my mother’s mother’s mother. She favored girl children, and so had little to say to my brother and me but doted on my cousin Patricia. My main memories of her are of her sitting stick straight in a chair in the corner when the family gathered. But oh, the stories my mom and grandma would tell about her. Born in 1889 in Van Wert, Ohio, the courthouse allegedly burned down with her birth records in it, and so by lying about her age she was able to stay on at Bendix in South Bend, Indiana, where we lived, well past the mandatory retirement age. She helped raise my mother, who was a tomboy. This infuriated prim and proper Sue, who expected my mom to be a lady. Sue constantly bought her frilly clothes in pink and other pale colors. After she left home, to the day she died, my mom wore earth tones and black. Sue was also a terror on the roads — my parents would not let me ride with her.
But I did get to ride in that LTD. Sue lived with my grandparents at their home on a small lake near Dowagiac, Michigan. By 1974 or so, Sue was showing clear signs of dementia. One day, Sue managed to back the car into the lake. That was quite a feat, as it was at least 200 yards from the driveway. Shortly after, Grandma put Sue in a nursing home. Grandma drove the LTD for a little while after that, and sometimes took my brother and me along. I remember the cloth seats having a lovely delicate pattern in them, but as I look up LTD interiors on the Internet I find only plain cloth. I’m far more sure that they were in the same blue as the exterior. I noticed that from the inside, the windshield had the same shape and chrome surround as the one in my dad’s ’66 Galaxie. I didn’t know yet that these were essentially the same car.
Sue’s LTD gave her near-Lincoln luxury at a good price: $3,362 was the base price, equivalent to about $32,500 today. I think the vinyl top was an option, but it was a super common one if the ’67 LTDs that turn up on Google Image Search are any indication. The base engine was the 289 V8, putting out 200 HP, which ought to have made it a decent enough performer.
Sue is carrying a record player. On this day I was about three, and my memory hadn’t switched on yet. This must be the day we received this record player, because Mom used it for years and years. Now I have it. I sometimes get it out at the holidays to play the Christmas albums my mom bought as a young adult in the early 60s.
This is the only other photograph I have of Sue from the years I knew her, and it’s with her pet ALLIGATOR. Sue was a badass.
It wasn’t until Sue died some years later that I learned that her name wasn’t Sue. I picked up her In Memoriam card to read that it was actually Eileen, and that her middle initial was P. “Yes,” Grandma said, “she just had everybody call her Sue.” Enigmatic to the end.
Further reading
1967 Ford LTD sedan by J.P. Cavanaugh
1967 Ford Galaxie 500 fastback by Ed Stembridge
1967 Ford LTD 2-door hardtop by PN
Sue reminds me of a saying I once heard…”she’d go bear hunting with a rolled up newspaper and give the bear the paper to better his odds”.
What a nice looking LTD! It’s hard to tell, and enlarging the picture doesn’t work well enough, but it appears there may be an engine callout on the front fender, seen between Sue’s purse strap and leg. I’ve seen a few ’67s with 390s having the engine badge in that location.
Thank you for sharing this picture. There are lots of good things going in it.
I can’t tell if there is a callout or not from the photo, but yes, it would be behind the front wheel and above the trim band. The 390 and the 428 were the only two engines that got the callout badge, and 390s were quite common in these.
Your memory on that seat upholstery does not fail you. There was a fancy little design in the seat back that does not show up well at the wrong angle. I found a decent picture showing one.
Also, according to the brochure, the vinyl roof was optional on 4 door cars, but standard on the 2 door, which was the only way they could fill in the C pillar to go with that small rear quarter window. In your photo taken in the bright light, you can kind of see the original C pillar shape in a barely perceptible shadow.
And Van Wert, Ohio – I know it well!
Hey, wow, you’re right, that slight shadow fits perfectly!
And that filled-in C-pillar is to me where broughamification really began to take a very dark turn. Quite literally I guess, given the lowered visibility and more closed-in feeling inside. The Galaxie roofline is infinitely better looking, in my opinion.
Great recollection!
I had an Aunt of similar ilk. 2 time retired school teacher, never married, She however doted on us boys. Similar terror on the road. This was the early 70’s. Her Delta 88 has 2 speeds, wide ass open or off. She tore up the back roads of NC in that car. My Grandmother forbid me from riding with her, but what she doesn’t know won’t hurt any of us. Great memories
Wow, “Sue” looked pretty good for a great grandma. But an alligator for a pet? WooHoo!
Born in 1889, so in 1971 she was 82! She died in 1981 at 92.
What a pisser! I love how you recall her. Great history of a character not to be forgotten. The car is a cool one, too. But the focus of this essay is definitely Great-Grandma Sue. She looks great in the picture at which time I estimate that she was 82 years of age. I have some corkers for relatives, but they pale in comparison.
My late wife was driving the opposite of this car when I met her in 1980. It was a 1967 Ford Custom with a 289. Very strangely optioned. It had A/C, but no power steering. Four door, white with a blue interior. She sold it before we got married for a few hundred bucks. It ran well, but you needed strong arms to drive/park it.
Thank you for sharing this great family story. Wonderful having such an outstanding and cool, great grandmother. Unfortunate, your time spent together did not overlap more. She must have been so proud, arriving in that beautiful Ford.
Thank you for these two photos and this little story: it is very touching.
Cool story, JIm, and I love the car being a Ford guy.
We see so many vintage photos on CC, and each of them has a story, but we hardly ever get to know them. It’s a delight to get a background on the photo’s subject and circumstances here.
I had to laugh about Sue fudging her age. My grandmother also fudged her age – in her case it was because her second husband was younger than her, which was frowned upon in the 1950s, so she just made herself a few years younger and the problem was solved. Grandma lived to be 106 and was what doctors considered a “super ager.” At some point around age 90, she became proud of her age, which was funny considering that for most of her life any mention of her age was taboo in our family.
Oddly, even though grandma was very adventurous and modern, she never took to driving. She had a license, and even owned a Pinto wagon at some point, but never enjoyed it, at just gave up driving altogether in her 60s.
As for Sue’s pet alligator… Wow!
My most unique relative was my Aunt Eloise who was my grandmother’s sister. My Uncle Amos bought my aunt a new 1967 Camaro SS for her 50th birthday. Many a Summer night my aunt would take me and my two cousins for ice cream and show us what the Camaro could do on Ohio country roads. The last words we usually heard was my Grandmother saying “Lou remember you have kids in the car”. Our response “Faster Auntie Lou faster!”. Granny not to be left out traded her 1963 Galaxie on a 1968 Torino GT.