Jim Kennedy’s Car Collection

Pearl Geary enjoyed a century on this planet, over half of which was shared with this Plymouth. Pearl was born in 1889, in Chicago. At age seven, her family moved to her maternal grandparents’ farm outside Middleton, Wisconsin, just west of Madison. In 1900, her grandparents purchased a small house in Middleton, where Pearl resided for the rest of her life. After graduating high school, she taught school for four years and worked in a Madison department store before marrying Frank Williams in 1912. Frank, born in 1879, worked in a number of occupations during his lifetime—including assistant postmaster (when his father held the local postal appointment), farmer, livery operator, teamster (when teamsters led teams of horses), barber, and golf-course groundskeeper.

It is unclear whether Pearl and Frank bought the Plymouth new, but if not, they acquired it shortly thereafter. The coupe had been delivered in September of 1933 to the Fox Motor Co. on West Johnson Street in Madison (as of this writing, now the site of the Red Rock Saloon—if you visit, go with the cheese curds and wash them down with some Spotted Cow ale). The PD model was Plymouth’s second attempt at a restyled offering for 1933—the first, the Model PC, Plymouth's first six-cylinder vehicle, impressed neither dealers nor customers; as a result, the automaker hastily restyled the vehicle prior to the spring selling season, giving it a longer and sleeker appearance. This particular car was a fairly basic model, but did include five wooden-spoke “Airwheels.”

Neill L Fox, a Madison native, had entered the automobile business in the early 1920s as one of the city’s first Ford dealerships. By 1933, he held the local Dodge and Plymouth franchises from Chrysler; he later sold Desotos as well. In 1940, Mr. Fox left the car business for real estate, eventually becoming Executive Secretary to the Madison Board of Realtors. He passed in May 1957, at the age of 67.

Pearl and Frank motored around Middleton, with occasional trips to Madison, for decades. Frank died in 1963, at age 84. Pearl became an unofficial local historian, penning reminiscences of Middleton through the years for the local newspaper, the Middleton-Times Tribune; many of her stories were published in a collection entitled “When You and I Were Young.” She continued to drive the Plymouth well into her 80s. Shortly before her death in 1989, at age 100, Pearl Geary Williams donated the car to the Middleton Area Historical Society. Although the Society originally intended to retain the vehicle in its collection, the lack of available storage and the prohibitive cost of maintenance compelled the Society to offer it for sale. The car wound up in Williams Bay, Wisconsin; subsequent purchases found the car in New Jersey, and later, Pleasanton, California. I purchased the PD in 2015 and sold it a few years later. At last report, the coupe was gracing a garage in Florida.