Hudson Dealer book Survey

He passed a way July 21, 2008 The following was written by a family member in February 2003:

Howard Harold Hutchins was born Jan. 17, 1917 to William H. and Pearl Beeler Hutchins at Wibaux, Montana. He was the fourth son of five boys and a girl. The Hutchins family moved to Billings, Montana, and Omak, Washington, where Howard attended schools. They moved to Centralia in 1933 and Howard graduated from Centralia High School in 1936. He began learning the auto body and fender trade while in high school and was a journeyman "Body Man" in his family's B&M Garage on North Tower soon after graduation.

Howard met Lelia Margarete Thompson, daughter of John W. and Vera Ware Thompson, in Sept. 1936, when the Thompson family moved to Centralia from Pond Creek, Oklahoma. Lelia was the oldest of two girls and two boys in the Thompson family, and she graduated from Pond Creek High School. She worked in Linville's Corner Store on North Tower. Howard and Lelia were married Jan. 11, 1939. Their
sons, Robert Howard, born June 17, 1941, and Dennis William, born June 17,1944, attended Centralia schools and competed in school and summer sports. The boys were active in Boy Scouts and their parents' church, First Christian.

Howard worked as an "Auto Body Man" until April 1942, when he became a brakeman for Union Pacific Railroad and worked there for the duration of World War II. In Dec. 1946 he opened his first business, a body and fender shop, gas station and used cars on Highway 99, at the North entrance to Chehalis. On May 13, 1947 a fire caused by an employee laying down a welding torch, burned the entire building and its contents, housing the shop, gas station and the Hutchins
home. The family moved back to Centralia where Howard opened a used car sales business at the corner of Summa and Gold Streets in July, 1947. He later obtained the "Nash Motor Co." franchise for that location. Nash later became American Motors. Howard sold new vehicles, Ramblers, Ambassadors, Pacers, Gremlins, G.M.C. line, and Jeep vehicles until 1977, when he became semi-retired. He sells used cars, and sells motor homes, and other recreational vehicles on consignment. Howard Hutchins has been in business on the Summa and
Gold streets corner in Centralia for thirty-eight years.

Howard's wife, Lelia has been a homemaker and active in church, school, and Scout affairs. Their son, Bob, attended Oregon State University and graduated from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon. He is married to Marilyn Clark of Bakersfield, California. Their children are: Robin, Bob, Jr., Heidi and Ricky. They live in Medford, Oregon, where Bob is a stock broker, Senior Vice-President of "Shearson Lehman/American Express" and active in church and
community affairs. Hutchins' son, Denny, graduated from University of Wyoming, and was a U.S. Air Force Captain where he was C-141 airplane Commander at McChord Air Force Base 1969-1973. He is married to Theresa Boyce of Rancho Palos Verdes, California and has three children, Sara, Kristoffer, and Spencer. They live in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington and Denny commutes to San
Francisco where he is a captain with Pacific Southwest Airlines.

During his business years, Howard was active in and served as president of the Centralia Rotary Club. He was president of Lewis County Auto Dealers and served two years as president of Lincoln Grade School PTA. For fourteen years he was Building Funds Treasurer of Centralia First Christian Church. For three years of Howard's semi-retirement his project was completely rebuilding and
restoring a very wrecked '67 Rolls Royce, which he drives. He enjoys his Senior Active status in the Rotary Club and he and Lelia have been active members of the First Presbyterian Church in Centralia since 1977.

Kromrei motors also known as ecorse motor sales. was located 3965 west jefferson ecorse mi. started in 1939 as a body shop sold hudsons from 1948 though 1957 then ramblers for a short time. the kromrei family operated the business until 1989.i bought the building in 1998. the show room still looks like the 1950's and still displays a hudson or two. now known as j&s autoworks we still do collision repair on a variety of vehicles. a couple weeks ago consisted of a 1935 cadillac up to a 2011 buick. if someones in the area look us up company is always fun.

Uncle Josh wrote:

I wouldn't pull the trigger on publishing the book to quickly. Looks like there is still a lot of information missing. Is there a place we could review it and see if our local dealer information is there?

I'd be interested in the final product but only if it's complete.

Uncle J, going by my General Info Handbook this dealers book is one of those that will NEVER be complete. As soon as a copy hits the bookshelves you can bet there'll be (at least) one person come by with "Oh, hey, there was this dealership in my town................"

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

I visited Shrock Motors at least once. He was very nice & Clarence, which I think was his 1st name, had a LOT of Hudsons stashed in barns out at the county fairgrounds. After he died, many years ago, his collection, predominately pickup trucks, was auctioned off, many going to Calif. HETers.

this dealership was in Bourbon, Ind., on U. S. 30 which goes across no. Ind.
I worked there part time when in h.s.
Wayne became an AMC dealership but, as Bourbon a pretty small town (one stoplight, LOL) was forced to relocate & he moved the dealership 15 miles east to Warsaw, Ind. - notice the 2 digit tele. #!
He was a very astute businessman & made a good living. He kept the brick building in Bourbon after moving the business. While a Hudson dealer he had a very good body man who had been a h.s. basketball star. As a result he kept a large inventory of body parts on hand, in the 2nd floor loft area. As my parents still lived there I went there almost every year in the late '60s & '70s & would buy chrome esp. from him. I sicced my old HET crony Harold Jornt onto Wayne (Harold lived in Wisc.) & Harold "cleaned him out".
I was last in Bourbon in 2004 & the building was still there. Wayne has long since died & my parents moved out West & have subsequently passed too. Dad bought a new '53 H sd. from Wayne off the showroom floor - I had "prepped" it & was so proud when dad bought it!
I have this ad & also his original dealership clock which I have up & running in my garage.

oldhudsons wrote:

I visited Shrock Motors at least once. He was very nice & Clarence, which I think was his 1st name, had a LOT of Hudsons stashed in barns out at the county fairgrounds. After he died, many years ago, his collection, predominately pickup trucks, was auctioned off, many going to Calif. HETers.

You will want to visit my website page on Shrock Motors at HudsonJet.net

P.S. Take any pictures of Wayne Love Motors building when you drove through? Is there a physical number to add to the street address? I understand the Love dealership remained into the '70's as an AMC dealer. Also, it's rumored that an infamous bank robber, John Dillinger, stopped in for a quick fix on his Terraplane. Wayne Love quickly went about repairing Dillenger's car with John sitting in the car. All the time he was working, he knew his buddy, the town marshall, was going to drop by any time. Lucky for the Marshall, Wayne got Dillenger repaired and down the road before the Marshall came by. If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to watch the Johnny Depp movie "Dillinger."

LOL on that Dillinger stuff! First place Dillinger killed in I think '35 in Chicago. 2nd place Wayne didn't become a Hudson dealer until after WW 2. If interested in that stuff read "The Dillinger Days" by John Toland.
John Dillinger did however stop in Bourbon, for a haircut! We had 2 barbers & the one would always regale anyone who would listen how he'd given Dillinger a haircut. He was sitting in his little 1 chair emporium one day & this black sedan parked in front. Two guys got out & came in, looked the place over, then went back to the car and a 3rd guy got out & got his hair cut. The barber didn't know who it was BUT about a week later saw a photo of Dillinger on the front page of the Chicago paper & recognized who he was.
The "town marshall was going to drop by" = another pipedream someone told you. We had a part time town cop who, into the '50s, drove his own car. Part of their pay was by writing tickets for people running the town's sole traffic light. They were NEVER on duty in the morning, would show up sometime in the afternoon & park near the signal so that people driving thru on U. S. 30 couldn't see them.