Our 1959 Collectors Dream Coach Cadillac S&S Ambulance/Hearse Comby by Sayers & Scovill was custom built for the Owens-Brumley Funeral Home in Wichita FAlls, Texas. It was built by the HESS & EISENHARDT Co., Rossmoyne, Ohio which also built specialty cars for presidents and heads of state. We have the “Limousine Style” which is preferred by professional vehicle collectors.

Funeral homes in Texas were once required to provide ambulance, emergency, and transfer service from home to hospital and vise versa. There were rollers for a casket as well as fasteners on the side to hold a wheeled cot securely. The windows allowed more light for the patient and helped them to feel less claustrophobic.

The car was originally purchased October 16, 1959 for $13,550. Quite a price back in those days. It was traded in when the odometer was somewhere between 28,000 and 33,000 miles and was likely traded back in 1964 or 1965. The car was then purchased by the Owens-Brumley Funeral Home in Las Cruces, New Mexico and was maintained impeccably.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, funeral homes tried glamourous colors to keep up with the times so many painted their hearses and limousines pink, Mint Green, Baby Blue and many other pastels. The original color of our coach was Aqua Baby Blue.

It was later purchased by someone from Los Lunas, New Mexico. From 1983 to 2003, it sat waiting for us to restore it. The odometer read 64,000 miles, 31,000 more since 1964: that is only 1,600 miles a year! The motor has been completely rebuilt and runs like a charm.

We found our “gem” in November 2003 in Missouri and brought it home on a car dolly driven by our 1997 Jeep Cherokee. Yes, all 6,000 lbs of it was towed. To fill up with gas we had to unhook the car. It was quite a trip home. Several, several heads were turned our way.