At his funeral, car lover gets 'one more ride' on back of classic pickup

ESSEXVILLE, MI — Gene Thompson was a car guy.

It was a car that caught the attention of his future wife Barbara. It was his love of cars that landed him a 31-year career with General Motors Co. in Bay City.

And it was a restored, classic pickup truck that took him to his final resting place.

Following a lengthy battle with Parkinson's Disease and kidney failure, Thompson, 81, of Essexville, died Saturday, Oct. 15. On Thursday, Oct. 20, more than 100 people celebrated his life at St. Jude Thaddeus Parish in the small Bay County city. But Thompson wasn't leaving the church for the cemetery in the back of a Cadillac hearse.

His friend Richard Spencer, who had been working with Thompson to rebuild a 1951 Ford pickup truck, drove his 1947 white Ford pickup. The gate on the bed was left open and Thompson's coffin was strapped into the back. They then cruised through some Essexville neighborhoods on their way to St. Patrick Cemetery.

"He never got a chance to finish up his truck and I know that he really wanted to," Spencer said. "I know he's looking down on us and happy that he got one more ride."

Spencer said he plans to finish up the work on Thompson's truck in the coming year.

It was another unique funeral procession in Bay County, similar to Jim Jameson's memorial last summer. The Bangor Township man, who spent more than five decades in the trucking industry, also went out the way he would have wanted — cruising on the back of his shiny green semi named Petey.

Trucker takes final ride in his big rig at funeral ^[1]

Thompson's funeral procession included dozens of family members — he had 11 children, 29 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren (with one on the way). At the top of the procession was Thompson in the '47 pickup, followed by a 1950 Plymouth Super Deluxe sedan that he restored.

"This way if he looks over his toes, he can see his car," Spencer said.

Also in the procession was a bright yellow Ford hot rod, driven by Terry Kemp, a family friend.

Eugene Frank Thompson was born in Bay City Dec. 6, 1934, to the late Frank and Jennie Thompson.

As a 17-year-old, he was driving a gray Plymouth — the same type of car that was in his funeral procession Thursday — down Washington Avenue in Bay City when a 15-year-old Barbara Douglas took notice of the teen. She told her friend Rita that she was going to marry that boy one day.

A few months later, her friend Rosalie wanted Barbara to meet her boyfriend's brother because "he had a car."

Much to her surprise, that brother turned out to be Gene Thompson.

"I kept telling her, no, no, no, I don't want to meet him, but I went anyway, and when I walked in the door, I said, 'Hey, that's the guy I'm going to marry!'" Barbara Thompson said.

That was in February. In December, he proposed to Barbara. The couple married a year later in October.

"He was a charmer," Barbara Thompson said. "I prayed everyday that my daughters would be as lucky as me to get a husband like him."

On Sunday, Oct. 23, the couple would have celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary.

Thompson was an active member of the community. He served as an usher at St. Jude Thaddeus Parish, was a member of the Knights of Columbus and was an avid golfer and bowler.

He also volunteered with the United Way, Disability Resources Center and the Area 9 Special Olympics as a downhill ski, soccer and basketball coach.

He and his wife were also foster parents to more than 100 children.

The Rev. Dale Orlik, who officiated Thompson's service, said Thompson had a favorite phrase: "Have faith."

"When I visited Gene in the hospital, I always walked away feeling like a better person," he said. "He had strong faith."

Thompson's wife said her husband would have been pleased with his celebration of life.

"It's everything he would have wanted," she said.