bud vanhouten
Active Member
just came back from the funeral of a very close friend and fellow hot rodder. the fellow who has done my auto painting for the last 6-7 years had a heart attack in his sleep this past monday. he had just came back from his daughters graduation and mowed the yard, then told his wife he was tired and was going to lay down awhile...never woke up!. jeff is the guy who repaired the wrecked blakely-bernardi i bought last year and he has painted on my lightning pickup, other old cars, motorcycles and was going to do some touch-up painting on my sport trac in the next couple weeks. he had not been sick at all. and he was only 47. jeff had just changed his full time job as he was lead painter/bodyman at a chrysler dealership that is closing here in raytown. he had just started work at a major independent body shop here and had only worked there 4 days, but said he loved it.
our car club was asked to escort his body from the funeral home to the church where the services were and then he's to be cremented. pretty awesome site to see about 25 hot rods and customs following the hearse. jeff was a fellow hot rodder and had restored a '68 buick skylark.
here's to a very dear friend who passed way to early. we'll be thinking about you pal.
dutch