The Hearse  or Funeral Coach has evolved over the year from the simple buckboard or wagon,to elaborate hand build coaches  with flamboyant embellishments, to some rather modest designs in today’s market.

  We have seen the hearse move from horse drawn apparatus of various kinds to motorized vehicles on various manufacturers chassis.

  Early motorized coaches adapted the square boxy horse drawn casket compartment on a motorized chassis.  These were often embellished with columns and somewhat smaller windows or panels embellished with carved panels to mimic the drapes of the hores drawn era.

     Early coach companies, such as Meteor Motor Car Company of Piqua Ohio, assembled the entire car with components made by various manufacturers and hand built the body.  In the late 1930’s many of these companies would buy a car from the major manufacturers and modify the body to build coach.   

In the early 30’s and through the 1940’s the body of the coaches evolved into various themes with carved panels on the side of production cars using the design of existing body styles or lines made by Cadillac, LaSalle, Packard, and others.  These were often referred to as Carved Side Coaches.  Another style referred to as the Limousine style coach  was also popular because it looked more like the mainstream autos of the day.  It  also showed the casket and flowers as the cortege would travel through the community.

  During the 1950’s The closed panel coach became more prevalent with the landau bar added to give some design to the enlarged rear quarter area.

   Over that same period, European coaches have maintained the open limousine style of window in their coaches.  Isn’t it curious that in Europe, where cremation is a much higher percentage than in the U.S., they prefer to show the casket in full view during the cortege to the cemetery or crematory.  Whereas in the US, where burial is still the most common disposition choice, most coaches hide the casket as we pass through our communities. 

Ironically, in our current era we have had a limited number of designs for current offerings from the domestic manufacturers resulting in much the same appearance throughout most of the American coach manufacturers.

  Modern Funeral Coach manufacturers such as Bennet Funeral Coaches in Grand Rapids, Michigan are finally using imagination and design cues from European manufacturers.  Bennett’s have also incorporated conveniences that the American consumer is used to, such as overhead hinged doors for rear hatch instead of a conventional opening door. 

   Bennett Funeral Coaches were the first to re-introduce the large glass windows to the quarter panel area similar to limousine style coaches.  Their design also provides a lower or more balanced profile image  to help reduce the boxy high top look that has developed in recent years.

That is why Pray Funeral Home opted to purchase the first Full Glass State Coach from Bennett Funeral Coaches. That is the Coach pictured at the beginning of this article.  Joe E. Pray is a third generation funeral director with his family’s funeral home, Pray Funeral Home, and a Pursuit of Excellence Emeritus winner in Charlotte Michigan.  He and his father have owned and restored a variety of antique and special interest automobiles including the 1937 Meteor Carved Side Funeral Coach, pictured above which is used for funeral services at Pray Funeral Home.  They have also own the 1930 Meteor Ambulance, also pictured earlier in this article, which is still in mostly original condition.