'Ran across this late-September 1963 photograph today while reading an article on the 50th Anniversary of the Birmingham AL 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young black girls in their church home. 
The tragedy occured September 15, 1963.
The photograph is interesting to us in Studebaker-Packard land because of the stately, what appears to be black 1956 Packard Patrician parked in front of the church, obviously participating in the funerals. Also seen in the photo is a new 1963 Chevrolet Nova 4-door and what appears to be a 1962 Cadillac Series 62 six-window 4-door hardtop.
The Nova and Cadillac would indicate that the Packard was still being respected for its formality and appropriate, stately demeanor when it was seven years old; very significant, in my opinion.
Of course, being in the south helped protect it from the ravages of northern salt, but not from the realities of its Twin Ultramatic probably acting up long before this picture was taken and, if so equipped, the electric shifter controls also available in 1956 having possibly needed attention long after Birmingham's Packard dealer had undoubtedly closed.
As tragic as was the incident that led to this photograph having been taken, it is heart-warming to see a formal, senior-series Packard appearing in such a setting, right where it belongs, in my never-so-humble opinion, even though it is seven years old at a time when anything over three or four years old was considered passe.
BP
The tragedy occured September 15, 1963. 
The photograph is interesting to us in Studebaker-Packard land because of the stately, what appears to be black 1956 Packard Patrician parked in front of the church, obviously participating in the funerals. Also seen in the photo is a new 1963 Chevrolet Nova 4-door and what appears to be a 1962 Cadillac Series 62 six-window 4-door hardtop.
The Nova and Cadillac would indicate that the Packard was still being respected for its formality and appropriate, stately demeanor when it was seven years old; very significant, in my opinion.
Of course, being in the south helped protect it from the ravages of northern salt, but not from the realities of its Twin Ultramatic probably acting up long before this picture was taken and, if so equipped, the electric shifter controls also available in 1956 having possibly needed attention long after Birmingham's Packard dealer had undoubtedly closed.
As tragic as was the incident that led to this photograph having been taken, it is heart-warming to see a formal, senior-series Packard appearing in such a setting, right where it belongs, in my never-so-humble opinion, even though it is seven years old at a time when anything over three or four years old was considered passe.
BP
We've got to quit saying, 
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