Whatever happened to HT Woody's cars?

[edpjr]

Back in the early 1970's when I was a teenager with a '59 2-dr HT Lark VIII, I used to get parts from and have work done by HT Woody in Hickory, NC. I could listen to him talk about Studes for hours. I moved away and sold my Lark in 1981. I heard that Mr. Woody passed away some years later. Now I'm back living in the general area. I drove by Woody's old place awhile back and there's nothing left, even the road has been changed. Does anyone know what became of his beautiful Gran Turismo Hawks or the other 20-25 Studes and thousands of parts that he owned?

[thom]

Mr Woody had more cars than most people knew about. The ones that could be seen from the road wer just part of his "collection" and were not the "good stuff".The remainder of the cars were on a hilltop across the road. I think the name of that area is Brookford , but I had always heard it called Studebaker Hill.After his death I got several cars from his son , Tommy .I got a 55 Champion coupe ,a 63 GT Hawk,and a 50 convert.I have since sold or trade all of them. A friend of mine has the 49 , I think, tow truck from there.I am sure all the cars are now gone and I seem to remember the son passing away sometime later.

thom

[jclary]

I used to stop by Woody's place when making sales calls in the area. Much of his property was taken up in the construction of an I-40 exchange and the cars had to go. As I recall, the cars were not all that good, and even his best were becoming "Shop worn." There were several active Studebaker enthusiasts in the Morgantown-Hickory area and hopefully much of the inventory was absorbed by them.

John Clary
Greer, SC

I have only two limitations ...BRAINS & ENERGY
SDC member since 1975

[thom]

I didn't see all of Mr Woody's cars because they were being sold a couple of weeks before I found out about it.Most of the better cars were already sold.I never heard of any rare or especially valuable cars there.However the 55 car I got had a very solid body and floors, unlike a lot of the other cars.I beleive the 55 is for sale again locally.Does anyone remember the collection of Studebaker cars and trucks that sat for years in Rutherford College , NC ,where the new CVS drug store is now?

thom

[edpjr]

Yessir. I remember seeing those Studes for years every time I went to Tex's Fish Camp. But that must have been 15-20 years ago.

quote:Originally posted by thom

I didn't see all of Mr Woody's cars because they were being sold a couple of weeks before I found out about it.Most of the better cars were already sold.I never heard of any rare or especially valuable cars there.However the 55 car I got had a very solid body and floors, unlike a lot of the other cars.I beleive the 55 is for sale again locally.Does anyone remember the collection of Studebaker cars and trucks that sat for years in Rutherford College , NC ,where the new CVS drug store is now?

thom

[rockinhawk]

Mr Woody's son Jim lives in Florida and is a friend of my brother. He came by my shop several years ago and left some parts with me. He said he was giving up and getting out of Studebakers. He told me to sell what I could and split the proceeds with him. Most of the stuff he left had been picked over and didn't sell very well. I paid him what I thought it was worth and haven't heard from since. NT


Neil Thornton
Hazlehurst, GA
'57 Silver Hawk
'56 Sky Hawk
'51 2R16 dump truck
Many others.

[thom]

The cars that were in Rutherford College were bought by a man in Lenoir , that runs an auto upholstery shop. Two or three were restored and the remainder are at Nelson's used cars & parts , although most are stripped of any useable parts now.The man that lived in RC later got into Crosley cars and several came and went.He was also into early (pre 1929)four cylinder Chevrolets and had aquired quite a few nos parts from Fox-Tolbert Chevrolet in Granite Falls, NC.I bought some parts from him for a 1926 Chevrolet I owned .

thom