Lonnie Holloway apparently didn't subscribe to the notion that you can't take it with you.
On Tuesday, the 90-year-old Saluda, S.C., man was buried in his favorite car -- a classic green 1972 Pontiac Catalina.
"It was unusual," his caretaker, Rosa Anderson, said in a telephone interview after the funeral, but "it was what he wanted."
"That was his favorite car, and he decided he wanted to be buried in it."
She said Mr. Holloway was placed in the vehicle, buckled into the driver's seat with his hand placed on the steering wheel.
Family and friends who gathered at Rock Hill Baptist Church were snapping photos as the car was lowered into an extra large plot, she said.
Mr. Holloway, who worked for the U.S. Department of Commerce for 32 years, died Sept. 2 of prostate cancer.
The car, which friends said Mr. Holloway had bought new, was not the only thing accompanying Mr. Holloway into posterity. Several rifles and six handguns were also buried with him, said Ms. Anderson, who called Tuesday's burial unique.
"No one had ever seen that before," she said.
Reach Preston Sparks at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010. All Rights Reserved.
Is that legal?
Yeah it is.. his car, his lot...There have been other people who did the same.
Mae West he aint. but to each his own haha
The law states he must be in a concrete crypt that seals and it doesnt matter if you own the property or not. I dont understand how they got around this. Not to mention the grave robbers who will go get those guns
A man that did not back down and bow to the norm. Wish I had known him.
Wowwwwwwwww. Only in the South.... Only in the south!
The grave robbers wont get anything if they try. The car has to be completly stripped (Haz materials, wires, vehicle parts) before being buried in the ground. I am sure that the guns were buried without bolts or triggers as well.
The car was completly covered in concrete after it was put in the ground according to the news this morning..
That is crazy!
Nofrills you worry too much. Let's shift gears for a second, I might do the same thing, only I want my CD player to be blasting AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" while they are lowering me. No tears would be shed and all my friends would love it. The only bad part is I will miss the comments from all of you.
Colored folks!!!
420Time get a life
Hell I'm white and I'm thinking about doing the same! Me and my old Dodge Dakota will go down together!
I am going to say this once and get it off my chest and never mention it again. I never post to the political news because someone always turns it into a racial issue. Nothing anyone says is going to change the mind of a conservative or a liberal who views race as the underlying differrence between the two idealogies. As to this article, where is Mr. Holloways race mentioned? It isn't mentioned because it is not pertinent to the story, which is a good story about a unique man. One day hundreds or thousands of years from now someone will unearth Mr. Holloway and deduce he was very special to be entombed unlike most other humans. Whoever discovers this will probably think he was a Pharoah type leader. Isn't that cool to think about?
I think it's GREAT to go llike you WANT to go instead of the old traditional way!!! Everyone should make that choice! I made the choice years ago to be a krispy kritter, LMAO, instead of going into the ground and to be scattered. Families should NOT cringe at their loved ones CHOICE, but carry it out to the LETTER!! Double thumbs way up to Lonnie Hill AND his family for HIS choice and them making sure it was done like he wanted it!!!!
Very cool.............
Cache for clunkers?
420Time...Colored folks. What the hell is wrong with you???? Of all the things to comment about on this story, you decide to take it there yet once again. Funny how race was never mentioned in the article. Are you deducing that he was african american from the nationalities of the people in the film clip? It doesn't even matter. It's never about race when it's a white person. Maybe I'll fix that on the Weinberger's article.........
an interesting comment as i wasn't aware anyone could be forced to be buried in ANY container at all,,, a shroud is all some religions require,,, cemeteries can & do restrict burials to certain sections in which no vaults are required but that's usually for safety reasons,,, would this instance be different if it were a mopar or ford ? ? ?
"Cache for clunkers?"
Only comment worth reading here. Brilliant.
If you plant a Ford a lemon tree will sprout. And you can't plant a GM or Chrysler because it takes too much government subsidized fertilizer to make them grow. You can't plant a VW because they are Fahrfrumgrowin.....
A casket(in this case a car) only has to be in a concrete vault if you are buried in a perpetual care(state licensed) cemetary. Church cemetaries do not fall under these rules. The state licensed cemetaries don't want the ground to collapse under you when the casket starts returning to the earth. From the video(seeing the headstones), it did not appear to be a perpetual care cemetary. If it wasn't, the concrete was probably to discourage grave robbers, especially knowing the guns were in the car. It's my opinion and I'm sticking to it!
He went like he lived...unconventional.
I think it was an awesome idea:) no you can't do anything with material items once dead, but at least you *know* you could take what is most important to you.
Styling and Profiling What a way to go!
Hot wheels and guns! Yeehaw!
One thing's for sure... Ol' boy will surely be missed, but he'll damned sure be ready when the uprising comes!
-=B
That there would be grave robbers in Saluda SC who would go after guns does not surprise me. Uprising, indeed. This story, along with all you nutballs here, is sick. But again, not surprising and entirely in keeping with an ignorant, debased, materialistic, and functionally illiterate crowd of jerks.
And somehow, I find it overwhelmingly sad. That this guy had nothing that he was more attached to than this hunk of iron. Only in America. There's no question why the rest of the world laughs at us and thinks we are the biggest fools on earth. Here's your proof.
jedex, there is a concrete slab to make sure no one will steal the guns...and whats wrong with being different for once?
What's wrong is that it's so pathetic. He is attached to a piece of junk. I am an agnostic, but isn't there something that the Christians believe about not gathering up treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt? I assume this man was Christian. But obviously, like most of them, completely illiterate in terms of the Bible. Now if he were living in ancient Egypt, when kings were buried with many material possessions, this mentality would be understandable, although no less silly. But it appears that the New Covenant passed completely over this man's head. That is further proof that religion is nonsense.