Jim Kennedy’s Car Collection

As Christmas 1959 approached, Joe Duffy faced a unique dilemma. The San Francisco native and brewery worker wanted to buy a new car. Not just any car: a blue and white 1960 Plymouth four-door hardtop sedan on display at Bob Waters Plymouth Center on Van Ness Avenue. His unusual challenge: a car dealer who did not want to sell the car.

Robert A. Waters, Jr., had been president of James F. Waters, Inc., at one time the world’s largest DeSoto-Plymouth distributorship. James F. Waters had pioneered a business of modifying DeSoto sedans as taxicabs, establishing a lucrative business manufacturing and selling “Sky View” DeSoto cabs across the country, particularly New York. By the mid-1950s, however, regulatory changes led to the demise of the cab business, and DeSoto’s declining popularity resulted in the winding up of the Waters San Francisco dealership. Bob Waters decided to launch a new, smaller Plymouth-DeSoto-Valiant store, on San Francisco’s Auto Row along Van Ness Avenue, near the existing Waters operations. To attract customers, he ordered a top-of-the-line, highly-optioned 1960 Fury four-door sedan, equipped with novel accessories including a record player. The showcase model shipped from Los Angeles to the Waters’ San Bruno, California, dealership on November 3, 1959, arriving in time for a “soft launch” of “Bob Waters Plymouth Center” in mid-December. When Joe Duffy spotted the Plymouth and offered to buy, Bob Waters demurred; he did not want to lose his eye-catching demonstrator, which would take several weeks, if not months, to replace. But through either persuasion or cash or both, Joe Duffy prevailed, and he registered his prize on December 22, 1959, three days before Christmas.

One hopes Joe Duffy enjoyed every moment he spent with his new purchase; he died unexpectedly at age 47 on August 16, 1961. His sister-in-law mentioned to a fellow parishioner at her church that Joe’s almost-new car would be offered at an estate sale; that friend, Marjorie Bean, and her husband, Elmer, bought the car in 1961 to replace a 1953 Chrysler Station Wagon no longer needed as their five children grew older. The Fury was the only car the Beans owned for the next 30 years. Mr. Bean commuted to work in San Francisco by bus, so Mrs. Bean was the principal driver: she drove the car to her part-time job as an accountant for a local real estate company, and for grocery shopping. After Elmer required a wheelchair, the Beans purchased a Ford Taurus station wagon, but could not part with the Fury. Elmer died in 1998, and Marjorie in 2004. One of their sons inherited the car, and, with his nephew, displayed it at local car shows and at the Piedmont, California, annual Fourth of July parade. Once his nephew outgrew interest in the car, the Bean’s son offered it for sale at a local auction house in 2015. A friend called my attention to the listing, and I submitted what became the winning (and perhaps only) bid. This mostly showcase Plymouth is a true time capsule, right down to its original black-and-yellow California license plates. 

Bob Waters Plymouth Center survived for a few years and then folded. Bob Waters rejoined the Waters Family businesses and later operated Toyota and Pontiac dealerships in the San Francisco Bay Area. He died suddenly on Christmas Eve, 1979, 20 years and two days after he sold Joe Duffy his new blue Fury.