At the flea market this morning I was told a rather fascinating tale. Ivan had written a new song about a preacher who made moonshine on the side. When he died his coffin burst into flame, incinerating the hearse. Turns out that it was based, in part, on a true story.
Ivan made up the preacher bit, said it made for an interesting angle. However, the part where the hearse burst into flames actually happened. According to Ivan, he heard the story from the late Robert “Mountain Man” Perry years ago. This morning we asked Robert’s brother, Ralph, about the story, and he gave us the details.
The Perry’s next door neighbor was quite the character. He was a moonshiner who was mean as a snake and “took the Lord’s name in vain every other word.” When he died he was taken to the burying ground in a hearse. As soon as his coffin was taken out of the hearse, the vehicle burst into flames. Robert and Ralph were there to witness the incident, and thought it was appropriate given the life of the departed.
Of course, I had to check it out. I had been given a name and the location of the burial, so I found the reference on Find-a-Grave. The person, Halley Zachary, is/was real, but I couldn’t find any additional information about the late moonshiner or the incident with the hearse. As I searched, though, I found that this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.
A quick Google search brought up several examples of hearses bursting into flame. Here’s one from Waco, Texas, from June 2017.
In 2022 something similar happened in Trinidad and Tobago.
And again in 2016, this time in Birmingham, Alabama.
Yes, there are video examples.
I did a search of historic newspapers and found LOADS of stories about hearses bursting into flame. The earliest one is of a horse-drawn hearse with a drunk driver.
And the hits just keep coming…
I found no less than 50 examples of hearses bursting into flames. Then there are all of the unreported incidents, like the irascible Halley Zachary. In modern times vehicle fires generally don’t make the news unless part of an accident.
So, what’s the story here? Do more hearses than normal automobiles burst into flame? Or is it just that people have focused on the unusual aspects of a hearse fire, especially one that might contain a body? Ivan surmised that it was something inherently faulty in the design of a hearse, something about the longer body, alterations to the chasis, and the weight it had to carry. Who knows? Could be that it says something about the bodies carried therein, or, as Ivan wrote in his song, “God’s redemptive ire.”
Regardless, here are the lyrics Ivan wrote for the song…
The Story of the Preacher Who Sold Moonshine
By Ivan Kershner
His coffin it caught fire
In the backseat of the hearse.
He was tryin’ to get to Heaven,
But the Devil got him first!
He told folks he was a preacher
In the little country church.
Each Sunday he preached scripture
From the pulpit on his perch.
But on weeknights he sold moonshine
Out the back door to his friends.
He was wobbling in the middle
While attending to both ends.
He spent the pledges of believers
Buying sugar for his mash.
He robbed Peter from the pulpit
And collected Paul’s ill-gotten cash.
When he finally passed away
Those assembled shed few tears.
They just wanted for his memory
To vanish through the years.
His coffin it caught fire
In the backseat of the hearse.
He was tryin’ to get to Heaven,
But the Devil got him first!
Some said the tail pipe was faulty.
It got hot and set the fire.
But the little congregation
Knew he got God’s redemptive ire.
His coffin it caught fire
In the backseat of the hearse.
He was tryin’ to get to Heaven,
But the Devil got him first!
Ivan suggested the tune “Little Joe the Wrangler” for these lyrics. It turns out that this melody is the same as “The Lily of the Valley.”
It turns out that these weren’t the original lyrics to the song, either. Will S. Hayes wrote the original song in 1871 for a minstrel show. It was entitled “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane.” As for me, I like to think that Ivan’s lyrics are more appropriately set to an old hymn. It conveys just the right amount of sacrilege.
I had to alter the melody just a bit and tweak Ivan’s original lyrics, but here’s the final product. Enjoy!
Ivan might be right about the vehicle alteration and weight. About 40 years ago two friends and myself were moving a nurse to Florida in her mother’s car with a trailer attached. The load pressed the car body down enough to be in contact with the muffler.
We eventually smelled something burning, pulled over and discovered it was the rear seat starting to burn. Disaster was averted when we pulled the seat out, put out the flames with our beers and stuck it in the trailer.