Meet the Original Salesman of
Mrs. Carey's Cadillac!
Recently,
the Central Plains Region of the
Cadillac-LaSalle Club held a show at the beautiful
Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas.
Imagine my surprise when a gentleman came up and introduced himself as Harold
Keely, the salesman who sold
this car new in 1963 to Mrs. Carey! Mr. Keely worked for Bulger
Cadillac from 1957 to 1971, when he left the dealership and went on to a career
as a business owner. He is now retired and still lives in Wichita.
He had seen an article in the Wichita Eagle publicizing the show and
mentioning this rare, low mileage 1963 Park Avenue DeVille. He wondered if
it was the same car he had sold to Mrs. Carey, and decided to come down and take
a look.
He recalled that Mrs. Carey called him at
the dealership in the spring of 1963, and that she sounded elderly and not in
the best of health. She had saved a 1962 brochure from a mailing that Mr.
Keely had done a year earlier, and wanted to know if he would come to
her home to talk to her
about a new Cadillac. Mr. Keely recalls that Mrs. Carey mentioned that she
had recently lost her driver's license, due to ill health, but hoped to get it
back. And, in any case, she said that
her
gardener could drive her around in the car. This was a fascinating
tidbit--it is entirely possible that Mrs. Carey never actually drove this car
herself! A real life "Driving Miss Daisy!"
Mr. Keely remembered that the 1957 Cadillac that Mrs. Carey traded in was also a very low mileage car, with about 5000 miles on it. Not bad for a 6 year old car! He guarded that one carefully so that his fellow salesmen wouldn't sell it before he had the chance.
Mr. Keely delivered the car to Mrs. Carey on June 25, 1963, at her home. He left Bulger Cadillac before Mrs. Carey sold the car back to Mr. Bulger in 1974. He was surprised to hear that Mrs. Carey had lived until 1980, as she was already in such poor health 17 years earlier.
It was a pleasure to meet Mr. Keely and it was a great example of how this is a fascinating and enjoyable hobby.
