1966 Plymouth fury vip
VIN: PS43E62289818
Engine: 318 V-8 2 Barrel Carburetor
Exterior Color: Light Blue with black padded top
Interior Color: Blue
Assembly Plant: Hamtramack, Michigan
Production Date: July 28, 1966
Dealership: Brown Motor Co., Inc., Oberlin, Kansas
Original Sale Date: August 15, 1966
Backstory
Ralph W. Shaw grew up on his family’s farm west of Oberlin, in Decatur County, Kansas. He graduated high school in 1948 and married his high school sweetheart, Violet Spiers, in 1950. Ralph and Violet then studied to be teachers, graduating from Ft. Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, Ralph with a degree in Mathematics and Violet with a degree in History and English. Over the course of his working life, Ralph was a high school Mathematics and Aeronautics teacher and an insurance agent, all while continuing to raise cattle and farm on his family’s land in Oberlin along with his sons Richard and Joel. Violet enjoyed a long career as a high school teacher and librarian.
Although Ralph was known to be thrifty, while still in school in Hays he spotted a new Chrysler Imperial, white with a blue interior, on display in a Chrysler showroom. Although tempted, he and Violet ultimately decided to defer purchasing a new car until they had secured jobs and knew where they would be living. Jobs would ultimately take them back to Oberlin, Kansas. Conveniently, a high school classmate of Ralph named Joe Brown, along with his father, owned Oberlin’s Chrysler and Plymouth dealership. Joe told Ralph about a beautiful new Plymouth sedan he had just ordered, and shared a brochure on the car. Both Ralph and Violet were smitten by the pictures, and eagerly awaited the vehicle’s arrival. Its factory air conditioning, apparently an exotic feature luxury in 1960’s Kansas farming communities, held particular allure. Ralph inspected the car as soon as it rolled off the transport, and immediately committed to the purchase, trading in his 1959 Ford Galaxie as part of the deal. Ralph would keep the blue Plymouth Fury VIP until his passing in July 2017.
The Shaws would soon purchase an International Scout as their daily driver, reserving the VIP for more special occasions. In the early 1970’s, when the Shaws temporarily worked in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Ralph would drive the Plymouth five and a half hours back to Oberlin to work his farm on weekends. Richard Shaw also used the car to commute to the Air Force Academy when he was a student, and in Manhattanville, Kansas for a while after he married. Otherwise, the blue sedan was a familiar sight on the red brick streets of downtown Oberlin.
After Ralph Shaw passed, his family kept the Plymouth VIP for sentimental reasons. They eventually offered it for sale through a classic car dealer, where it caught my attention in the late Spring of 2019. Violet Shaw passed in 2023 at the age of 90.
Joe Brown, his brother Don and their father launched Brown Motor Co. as a Chrysler-Plymouth franchise after World War II ended and automobile production resumed. Like most car dealerships in small farming towns, they also offered farm equipment, such as International Harvester tractors and Krause implements. Joe eventually bought out his brother and father. His brother Don later became the Chief of Police in Oberlin and Fort Hays State University; another brother, Raye, owned the local grocery, which still operates as an IGA store. In the early 1970s, as General Motors products gained increasing favor over Chrysler in farming communities, Joe purchased Oberlin’s Chevrolet dealership, Oberlin Motor Co., after a fire had destroyed that facility and ended his affiliation with Chrysler. Oberlin Motor Co. ceased operations sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
