Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

This past week I received an email from a fellow that indicated that he believed his grandparents once owned my 1955 400 in the 1960's. Chris B., from Glendale Arizona contacted me, after he had undertaken a family origin search using the internet. Chris' personal search yielded the for sale ad that I have pending on Hemmings.com. Within my ad, I wrote, "I have a copy of an Arizona registration card (obtained from AZ MVD) that places the car in the ownership of L.D. and/or Mildred Henry in Buckeye from November of 1963. Attempts to learn more about the car's prior history have been unsuccessful thus far."

After trading emails, Chris and I spoke on the telephone, and I'm happy to report that I've learned a bit more about the 400's history. Chris is presently (62) years old, and his recollection is that the car was mono-toned or black in color. That piece information made me smile, because my 400's trim code is H-84 (to those familiar with 1955 Packard color schemes, H- represented "Grey Pearl", a dark gray color that can appear black to the eye). Further, during my restoration process, I uncovered the dark grey coloration just above the 400's original primer coat and below the single stage turquoise that the owner before me had used to repaint the car.

Chris also recalls riding to a Methodist church on Sundays with his grandparents in Liberty, Arizona, when he was a young adolescent of approximately ten years of age. Sitting on the bumpers and watching the car "bounce" upwards when he and his contemporaries jumped off the bumper corners was a fond memory for him. He also keenly remembered the sound of the torsion level motor engaging from underneath the car as it re-leveled itself.

Chris' grandparents settled in the west valley of Phoenix (near present day Glendale) where they farmed land. LD Henry left his home in Oklahoma because of the 'dust bowl', and sought work in California to pick oranges during the depression. While traveling back to Oklahoma to see his family, he found opportunity and purchased and/or homesteaded land west of Phoenix. Chris said that if the land owner put in irrigation channels onto the parcels, government programs of the day put wells into the ground at no cost to the owner. With the acquired acreage, LD produced alfalfa, much cotton and raised his family. LD Henry was also civically very active in the area and he was the 1965 Master of the Acacia Masonic lodge in Avondale.

Chris indicated that the Packard remained with LD and his wife, Mildred, through the time of their deaths in 1978. From there, the Packard was sold by LD's surviving brother to an unknown person. Chris lamented that he was a poor college student at that time and he wasn't in a position to purchase the car. We discussed my fortune of finding near pristine remnants of the seat upholstery and he indicated that his grandparents had heavy plastic in place on the seats.

Before our conversation, Chris had already spoken to his mother who is (88) years old and the only remaining child of LD and Mildred Henry. His mother indicated that LD purchased the car from their family doctor that worked in the Avondale and Buckeye Arizona areas back in the day. She however today cannot recall what that doctor's name could have been and the trail goes cold for nearly (20) years.

Then in 1996, the owner immediately before me located the Packard in a field on a parcel of land near Tonopah Arizona. He purchased, and undertook a very limited restoration. The car's condition however, given the MVD document search I did, showed that the 400 was in very poor shape. When I learned of the car in 1998, and eventually made my purchase in June 1999, I trailered her back to my home in Tucson. Much has happened between 1999 and today, yet I continue to try and fill in the blanks about the Packard's history.

As I write this piece, I wonder if Chris' mother used that same doctor to attend his and his siblings' births. Maybe a doctor's name will be on a birth certificate as the attending physician?

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