History of the Peach State Region
By Jay Friedman and former members Frank Lindauer, Jim Apt and Mike Posey
(Appeared in the August 1998 Issue of The Self Starter; updated by Doug Bailey in 2015)
The name of our regional group suggests an old car club covering an entire state and maybe more, but our beginnings were much more humble. The exact date of the founding of the Peach State Region is lost in the mists of history, but sometime in the late 1980s a meeting was called by several CLC members at Stone Mountain Park, a few miles east of Atlanta, Georgia. Invited were all Cadillac-LaSalle Club members listed in the CLC directory with addresses in Georgia and nearby areas of surrounding states. The turnout was impressive; there were about 25 cars from the ’30s to the ’90s and lots of tires kicked and lies told, as well as enthusiastic talk of starting a new regional group. But as anyone who has tried to get one going must know, a critical mass has to build up before a new regional group will take off. [Since this was written several CLC regions have been sanctioned then withdrawn due to lack of momentum. – Doug]
Over the next few years several more meetings were held to no avail, but finally in 1992 six die-hard CLC members met at a local restoration shop and decided to really and truly organize a provisional regional group. Those founding members and their Cadillacs were Mike Smith (’41 coupe), Alan Lease (’57 Eldo Brougham), Frank Lindauer (’49 four-door), Mike Posey (’75 Eldo Convertible), Jay Friedman (’49 coupe) and last, but certainly not least, Art Gardner (’55 Fleetwood).
Art was the spark plug we needed, as he got things going in earnest. His first act was to more or less appoint himself Director (without opposition). Then, with his fine sense of organization and leadership skills (he's a lawyer), Art finally got the critical mass of new members and enjoyable activities going in the right direction. At first we were the provisional South-Eastern Region of the CLC. We later decided to scale back our ambitions and renamed ourselves the Peach State Region. CLC made us a full regional group of the CLC in 1993. So much for history, as most other regional groups must have started out similarly.
Art and his successor, Eric Westphal (’49 coupe), were great presidents. But the heart and soul of any regional group are its newsletter and its activities, which means, naturally, that the most essential members are the Newsletter Editor and the Activities Chairperson.
The Peach State Region was lucky to have Frank Lindauer as the founding editor and publisher of our newsletter, The Tail Fin. Frank remained in this post until the end of 1997, during which time he developed the TF into one of the finer examples of the genre. His successor Bill Barnard (’69 Hearse, or Commercial Car) carried on in the same tradition. Every Peach State member looked forward with anticipation to the unscheduled arrival of The Tail Fin, which appeared about nine times per year and, most appropriately, was printed on peach-colored paper. The Peach State Region has also been fortunate in having three outstanding Activities Chairpersons prior to 2000. The first was Mike Posey. Mike had a special knack for organizing old car events, as any CLCer who attended the April 1997 National Driving Tour to Savannah or the 1998 Blue Ridge National Driving Tour could attest.
Mike's first memorable event was an outing to the Atlanta Polo Club, which took place in September 1994, and which made the January 1995 cover of The Self-Starter. This event was organized along with Classic Cadillac, a local dealership which lends support to the Polo Club. Thirty-three cars from 1905 to 1995 participated, and we are still talking about it. Another great Posey-organized outing in 1995 was a treasure hunt and cross-country rally which ended up at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Juliette, Georgia, site of the filming of the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes".
Our great activity luck continued later that year when Mike became President and Chip Bryan took over the Activities Chairperson helm. Besides owning a ’58 Coupe De Ville and a ’67 De Ville convertible, Chip organized a number of great events, including a June 1997 outing to the Coker Tire Company in nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee. Besides seeing how tires for old cars were made in the historic Coker Building, which is in the National Register of Historic Sites, we had the privilege of being invited to see Mr. Coker's fabulous collection of old cars, including two Cadillacs: a ’28 dual-cowl phaeton and a ’55 Coupe De Ville.
In 1997 we had a number of events, which have included something for everyone by being balanced between visits to old car museums, restoration shops, and historic sites, as well as driving tours. Some of the places visited have been the historic Oakland Cemetery, a Civil War Battlefield and Stone Mountain Park. As a club we participated along with hundreds of other cars in the "Ride of the Century," a police-escorted tour through the heart of Atlanta, which was sponsored by local car dealers to commemorate 100 years of automobiling in Georgia. (This latter event was noteworthy in that Mike Posey got bumped from behind by a lowly Model T Ford.) Our crowning activity in 1997 was the aforementioned tour to Savannah, which was a CLC- sanctioned event and which made the cover of the August ’97 The Self-Starter.
The next Activities Director was Elinore Posey, Mike's mom. With that Posey flair for great events, she followed well in the footsteps of her predecessors. Elinore spent much of early 1998 organizing our Blue Ridge tour in May to the Appalachian regions of Georgia and North Carolina, which was a great success. The Blue Ridge tour opened at the Dillard House, a beautiful hotel in the Appalachians on the GA-NC state line, where almost 100 participants and 50 Cadillacs from 1930 to 1998 gathered for a kickoff cocktail party and blue grass jam session. The next day we convoyed to Dillsboro NC for a scenic ride on the Great Smokey Mountain Railway and then continued along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mount Pisgah and Asheville. And then on the third day, in a supreme test for old Cadillacs, we proved we are indeed the Standard of the World by convoying up Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi. The tour itself then ended with a visit to Chimney Rock and a ride up the 26-floor elevator to the lookout, from where we could see our cars parked way below and from whence we had come the past two days. This was followed by a festive banquet that evening, where trophies and awards were presented for various honors, including people's choice and greatest distance travelled, ending with a good southern feast which was enjoyed by all.
Although the Peach State Region can't claim our appreciation of good food is unique among CLC regions, we do our share of feasting and rarely attend an old car outing without planning to fill our faces. Some of these feeding activities have become annual events. For example, our Christmas Party ties in with the announcements of results of election of club officers. We also had a wonderful Sunday morning brunch every January at the Officer's Club of Fort McPherson in Atlanta. Some members, it was rumored, considered that to be their final "pig out" of the year before carrying out any New Year's resolution to lose weight.
Another annual feed was a barbecue hosted by Mike Posey and his mom Elinore, on the lawn of their lovely house south of Atlanta. Known as a "Pig-Pickin Pork-Out," this event usually included members of other non-Cadillac old car clubs, which Peach State regulations do not permit us to name. The Posey’s ample lawn became a show field where guests could show off their cars, kick tires, tell lies, eat, drink and be merry, while being sure there was enough elbow room that no barbecue sauce splattered onto a stunning paint job.
The Peach State Region also maintained good relations with several Cadillac dealers in our area, who saw a definite advantage to having old Cadillacs visit their premises from time to time to help attract customers. Besides having informal shows in front of the dealership, Capital Cadillac invited us to use their conference room for club meetings.
Our club has never taken a poll of how many members do their own repairs and maintenance on their cars, but it must be a high percentage. Jim Sasser, owner of an inconspicuous bright red ’59 Coupe de Ville, is retired from the body shop of a non-Cadillac GM dealer and has painted several members’ cars. Alan Lease, a retired orthodontist [now deceased], applied similar techniques when tearing apart his ’57 Eldorado and other fine Cadillacs. [Alan’s Eldorado Brougham now resides at the CLC Museum in Hickory Corners, MI.] Past Membership Secretary Jay Friedman, while handy with a wrench, is best known for the quantity of ’49 Cadillac spare parts that he owns. Jay’s wife, Elaine, has assured the club that rumors of Jay keeping them in their living room are not entirely true. Jay is also known for having driven his ’49 to six Grand National meets in distant states since 1991 [still does] and for submitting sometimes harrowing trip reports on each of these experiences for publication in the Tail Fin.
Besides our energetic and active membership, a major reason for the success of the Peach State Region is our southern climate, which is known to be kind to old cars and their owners. We do not worry about salted roads and can drive and enjoy our cars year-round. Our roster is now at about 75 members [1998]; mostly from Georgia and surrounding states, but a few from places as far afield as Germany and even Pennsylvania. All Peach State members are looking forward to future Cadillac fun.
Over the next few years several more meetings were held to no avail, but finally in 1992 six die-hard CLC members met at a local restoration shop and decided to really and truly organize a provisional regional group. Those founding members and their Cadillacs were Mike Smith (’41 coupe), Alan Lease (’57 Eldo Brougham), Frank Lindauer (’49 four-door), Mike Posey (’75 Eldo Convertible), Jay Friedman (’49 coupe) and last, but certainly not least, Art Gardner (’55 Fleetwood).
Art was the spark plug we needed, as he got things going in earnest. His first act was to more or less appoint himself Director (without opposition). Then, with his fine sense of organization and leadership skills (he's a lawyer), Art finally got the critical mass of new members and enjoyable activities going in the right direction. At first we were the provisional South-Eastern Region of the CLC. We later decided to scale back our ambitions and renamed ourselves the Peach State Region. CLC made us a full regional group of the CLC in 1993. So much for history, as most other regional groups must have started out similarly.
Art and his successor, Eric Westphal (’49 coupe), were great presidents. But the heart and soul of any regional group are its newsletter and its activities, which means, naturally, that the most essential members are the Newsletter Editor and the Activities Chairperson.
The Peach State Region was lucky to have Frank Lindauer as the founding editor and publisher of our newsletter, The Tail Fin. Frank remained in this post until the end of 1997, during which time he developed the TF into one of the finer examples of the genre. His successor Bill Barnard (’69 Hearse, or Commercial Car) carried on in the same tradition. Every Peach State member looked forward with anticipation to the unscheduled arrival of The Tail Fin, which appeared about nine times per year and, most appropriately, was printed on peach-colored paper. The Peach State Region has also been fortunate in having three outstanding Activities Chairpersons prior to 2000. The first was Mike Posey. Mike had a special knack for organizing old car events, as any CLCer who attended the April 1997 National Driving Tour to Savannah or the 1998 Blue Ridge National Driving Tour could attest.
Mike's first memorable event was an outing to the Atlanta Polo Club, which took place in September 1994, and which made the January 1995 cover of The Self-Starter. This event was organized along with Classic Cadillac, a local dealership which lends support to the Polo Club. Thirty-three cars from 1905 to 1995 participated, and we are still talking about it. Another great Posey-organized outing in 1995 was a treasure hunt and cross-country rally which ended up at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Juliette, Georgia, site of the filming of the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes".
Our great activity luck continued later that year when Mike became President and Chip Bryan took over the Activities Chairperson helm. Besides owning a ’58 Coupe De Ville and a ’67 De Ville convertible, Chip organized a number of great events, including a June 1997 outing to the Coker Tire Company in nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee. Besides seeing how tires for old cars were made in the historic Coker Building, which is in the National Register of Historic Sites, we had the privilege of being invited to see Mr. Coker's fabulous collection of old cars, including two Cadillacs: a ’28 dual-cowl phaeton and a ’55 Coupe De Ville.
In 1997 we had a number of events, which have included something for everyone by being balanced between visits to old car museums, restoration shops, and historic sites, as well as driving tours. Some of the places visited have been the historic Oakland Cemetery, a Civil War Battlefield and Stone Mountain Park. As a club we participated along with hundreds of other cars in the "Ride of the Century," a police-escorted tour through the heart of Atlanta, which was sponsored by local car dealers to commemorate 100 years of automobiling in Georgia. (This latter event was noteworthy in that Mike Posey got bumped from behind by a lowly Model T Ford.) Our crowning activity in 1997 was the aforementioned tour to Savannah, which was a CLC- sanctioned event and which made the cover of the August ’97 The Self-Starter.
The next Activities Director was Elinore Posey, Mike's mom. With that Posey flair for great events, she followed well in the footsteps of her predecessors. Elinore spent much of early 1998 organizing our Blue Ridge tour in May to the Appalachian regions of Georgia and North Carolina, which was a great success. The Blue Ridge tour opened at the Dillard House, a beautiful hotel in the Appalachians on the GA-NC state line, where almost 100 participants and 50 Cadillacs from 1930 to 1998 gathered for a kickoff cocktail party and blue grass jam session. The next day we convoyed to Dillsboro NC for a scenic ride on the Great Smokey Mountain Railway and then continued along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mount Pisgah and Asheville. And then on the third day, in a supreme test for old Cadillacs, we proved we are indeed the Standard of the World by convoying up Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi. The tour itself then ended with a visit to Chimney Rock and a ride up the 26-floor elevator to the lookout, from where we could see our cars parked way below and from whence we had come the past two days. This was followed by a festive banquet that evening, where trophies and awards were presented for various honors, including people's choice and greatest distance travelled, ending with a good southern feast which was enjoyed by all.
Although the Peach State Region can't claim our appreciation of good food is unique among CLC regions, we do our share of feasting and rarely attend an old car outing without planning to fill our faces. Some of these feeding activities have become annual events. For example, our Christmas Party ties in with the announcements of results of election of club officers. We also had a wonderful Sunday morning brunch every January at the Officer's Club of Fort McPherson in Atlanta. Some members, it was rumored, considered that to be their final "pig out" of the year before carrying out any New Year's resolution to lose weight.
Another annual feed was a barbecue hosted by Mike Posey and his mom Elinore, on the lawn of their lovely house south of Atlanta. Known as a "Pig-Pickin Pork-Out," this event usually included members of other non-Cadillac old car clubs, which Peach State regulations do not permit us to name. The Posey’s ample lawn became a show field where guests could show off their cars, kick tires, tell lies, eat, drink and be merry, while being sure there was enough elbow room that no barbecue sauce splattered onto a stunning paint job.
The Peach State Region also maintained good relations with several Cadillac dealers in our area, who saw a definite advantage to having old Cadillacs visit their premises from time to time to help attract customers. Besides having informal shows in front of the dealership, Capital Cadillac invited us to use their conference room for club meetings.
Our club has never taken a poll of how many members do their own repairs and maintenance on their cars, but it must be a high percentage. Jim Sasser, owner of an inconspicuous bright red ’59 Coupe de Ville, is retired from the body shop of a non-Cadillac GM dealer and has painted several members’ cars. Alan Lease, a retired orthodontist [now deceased], applied similar techniques when tearing apart his ’57 Eldorado and other fine Cadillacs. [Alan’s Eldorado Brougham now resides at the CLC Museum in Hickory Corners, MI.] Past Membership Secretary Jay Friedman, while handy with a wrench, is best known for the quantity of ’49 Cadillac spare parts that he owns. Jay’s wife, Elaine, has assured the club that rumors of Jay keeping them in their living room are not entirely true. Jay is also known for having driven his ’49 to six Grand National meets in distant states since 1991 [still does] and for submitting sometimes harrowing trip reports on each of these experiences for publication in the Tail Fin.
Besides our energetic and active membership, a major reason for the success of the Peach State Region is our southern climate, which is known to be kind to old cars and their owners. We do not worry about salted roads and can drive and enjoy our cars year-round. Our roster is now at about 75 members [1998]; mostly from Georgia and surrounding states, but a few from places as far afield as Germany and even Pennsylvania. All Peach State members are looking forward to future Cadillac fun.
2015 UPDATES: Since this history was written in 1998 there have been a number of significant events and traditions developed within the Peach State CLC region. Mike Posey continued to serve as president through 2007, when Peach State hosted the Grand Nationals in Savannah. This was a high water mark for the club up until that point, placing Peach State CLC squarely on the “map” among the CLC regions in the U. S. At that point the Activities Director was Stan Tucker, owner at that time of a ’60 Series 62 convertible. The Membership Director and TAILFIN editor was Elizabeth Boggs – the protector of the beloved PEACH-papered black-and-white newsletter. It was worthy of a national Newsletter Award in 2002. Despite a monsoon most of the week of the Grand Nationals that year, most folks considered it to be a great success. There was a terrific turnout, and Savannah is one of the most recognized travel destinations in the country. Ghost tours, River Street, and a visit to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum were among the highlights of that major event. It was hectic behind the scenes (I am told), and lots of frantic late-night hours went into the preparations and conduct of the meet. Principle players in that behind-the-scenes effort included Stan, Martina and Frank Butler, Jack McClow, Sandy Partridge, and Lewis Schwartz. The club did well, and earned a reputation as “serious players” among the cognoscenti of the CLC.
Soon after the ’07 Grand Nationals Mike Posey tendered his resignation. Stan Tucker became the new president, and found his dream car, the “Godfather,” his Preservation Award-winning 1956 Fleetwood Sixty Special. Stan brought the experience of a creative Activities Director to the leadership role. During his tenure, in the able hands of Lee and Mary Jean Dunn (the new Activities Directors) the club did even more driving tours, including a fabulous return trip to Chattanooga (Stan’s old haunt) for visits to the Chickamauga Battlefield, Rock City, Missionary Ridge, and the Coker headquarters and museum. We were invited to join Harold Coker, their founder, in a caravan to his home in Cleveland, TN. There he made us coffee and showed us around his private collection of brass-era Thomas Flyers and steam cars.
In ’07 Stan recruited a new Membership Director, Doug Bailey, to take over for Elizabeth Boggs, who was retiring. Doug came from the ranks of the relatively new members, having joined the Peach State region to learn how to find his dream car. By 2005 he had found his “dream Cadillac,” the ’58 extended deck sedan he calls “the Turk.” Hooked by the Savannah experience, Doug took on membership recruitment with the zeal of the “newbie.” Combined with all the great activities, the club grew remarkably well over the ensuing years, annually adding to the numbers even as some members “moved on.”
A scan of the 2008 membership roster reveals an unavoidable truth: Although our cars seem to carry on for decades serving several owners honorably – we owners are steadily aging out of the hobby. Of the 100+ members listed in ’08, nearly half have moved on: A number of cherished, active members have passed away each year. Others find they cannot maintain their activity level or they pass their Cadillacs on to younger hobbyists. In general it seems we lose around eight members a year to retirement from the hobby or to that Cadillac graveyard in the sky. Harsh to think that we won’t be able to keep crawling under our cars forever, let alone drive them into the sunset… but facts are facts. Enjoy your car now, while you still can! And pass the word, because it takes eight or ten new members each and every year to stay in growth mode!
Our club moved into the 21st Century by converting to electronic communications in a big way. Lewis Schwartz designed and created a new web site, and began publishing updates there – including our new activities schedules and contact information for club officers. (We received the CLC Web Site Merit Award in 2013.) Doug started up an ACCESS database to keep better track of memberships and renewals, and began an earnest attempt to reach out to current CLC members who were not enrolled in Peach State. He also took over the editing chores for the TAILFIN, converting it to an MS Publisher format in full color, and publishing quarterly.
In 2010 Peach State took its rightful place among the Georgia regions of the Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac clubs and hosted its first-ever BOPC Show. It was fun, and a great success. We followed that up with an even better and bigger BOPC show in May 2014. And we will do it all over again in 2018. Member Bill Greene got us invited to the downtown Tucker cruise-ins starting in 2010 – as he converted from his beloved Fords to Cadillac he dragged his Ford buddies into the fold. Now we are a special attraction, lined up down the center of the street every June. While we are in Tucker we often stop by Chip Cofer’s collection to spend time in the presence of majesty: the Thirties classics from Cadillac, Duesenberg, and Packard. We are putting the rush on to get Chip's curator, Cecil McCall, to join our club. He drives and maintains at least three classic Cadillacs for the Cofers: a 1914 touring car, a '31 seven-passenger phaeton, and a '32 Fleetwood. The collection also contains two Duesenbergs, '35 SJ and a '35 Model J that used to belong to Mrs. John Jacob Astor (widowed by the Titanic disaster. http://www.thecofercollection.com
Editor Emerson Duke produced six TAILFINs a year between ’10 and ’11, using contributions from throughout the club. In 2010 Jay Friedman won the prestigious CLC Author of the Year Award for his library of technical and travel articles for The Self Starter. We have several other members who have contributed to The Self Starter, as well. We started a very popular activity in 2011: Our quarterly Cadillac Clinics engaged from ten to 15 members in coffee and donuts while a handful worked on a few cars. Host Bob Winchell opened his shop and lifts to us for Sunday afternoons in decent weather. After five years of this Winch handed over the reins to Marty Pecora, owner of Cadillac of Lake Lanier in Gainesville. In 2011 member Dick Peden began hosting our annual Dave Comstock Chili Cook-off at his beautiful garage in Alpharetta. Surrounded by Dick’s nearly perfect collection of Fifties cruisers, we bring our special chilis for judging by Dave’s widow Marty – who knows better than anyone how much Dave loved chili.
In 2011 Peach State CLC was awarded the Norm Uhlir Award for Most Active Region! This traveling award contains brass plaques with the region’s name and its leader – and it was accepted at the 2012 Grand National by president Stan Tucker. We resumed the big, popular spring and fall driving tours about then too, heading 300-500 miles round trips in all directions. These are among our most popular events, and we have been acknowledged by CLC for them.
In 2012 we found new TAILFIN editors, Bill Rush and Sandy Barth – both professionals who spent countless unbilled hours polishing our club’s reputation and presentation. Unfortunately this labor of love was way too demanding for full-time pros: Bill had to “retire” in 2015. In 2016 Sandy developed our current web site, this is our 21st Century TAILFIN, and we are as proud of it as we have been of the first one Frank printed on peach stock. No prints! Sandy continues as our club secretary, and she is doing a fabulous job.
At the end of 2012 Stan Tucker retired from the president’s job to go do some REAL work, and prioritize his family. He has continued to serve us well as senior leadership, passing along his experience and sage advice. He continues with Frank Butler as our auctioneers for the annual memorabilia auction to benefit the club. Doug Bailey moved into the president’s role, along with a new board. Our entire board works with Activities Directors, Tom and Linda Di Nucci, to make sure all events are well planned and exciting, to keep current members engaged and to attract new ones. In 2014 Martina Butler, our steadying hand, stepped aside from the Secretary’s position in order to devote more time to travel, although she has continued as Peach State’s liaison with the CLC as a CLC board member. She travels largely at her own expense twice each year to attend national board meetings and to keep Peach State in good sted with the national board.
When Lee Dunn retired from serving as our Activities Director, Tom and Linda Di Nucci stepped in. With help from the Dunns the Di Nuccis have kept us BUSY for years now… and they promise to keep going for the near future! Sandy Partridge gave us a bonafide accountant in the treasurer’s role for several years, then sat out a year in 2015. Michelle Anderson stepped into the treasurer’s role in 2015 and has been a major force. She automated the books using her experience with QuickBooks, and revolutionized our ability to stay on top of membership renewals. Her software supports monthly notices as members hit their anniversaries. (We roll memberships on anniversary dates so that we don’t have to pro-rate memberships for those who join in mid-year.) Michelle has made the membership director’s job much easier, freeing that person for recruiting efforts. She also manages the expenses for our MANY fund raisers and special projects, such as logo apparel, driving tours, name badges and challenge coins, and the Lake Lanier Cadillac event where we raise money for veterans. Buster Miller served two great years as Membership Director, then retired in 2016. Sandy Partridge rolled back into that spot in 2016, and remains there. Annette and Ron Benneche served three years as Communications co-Directors, then rolled off the board in 2016. Lucille O’Neill took over the Communications role and has made it her own – if you get a birthday or anniversary wish on Facebook, that’s Lucille keeping track! Lucille also takes a huge burden off the president by helping to organize meetings and to follow up with members who lose loved ones or spend some time in the hospital. Sadly, we lost our good friend and vice president Kevin Garrison suddenly in late 2015... he continues to be deeply missed. Longtime member Mark Nichols assumed the position of Vice President, and is being groomed to take over when Doug wears out.
2016 was Peach State CLC’s Best Ever, judging by nearly any measure you could come up with. Most new folks in a year? Tied for first with 23. Most participation by members in club events? Over 50% of our members participated in at least one of our twenty big events this year. Most big events in a year? Almost so: at 20 we came close to our record of 22. Most progress with the club’s organization? You bet! We had all our board positions filled with excited and engaged folks who are ALL IN. Financials? Yup: Our bank balance is growing, even as we do a better job of giving back value to our members – by sponsoring more trophies, subsidizing more of the entry fees for our activities, and spending on infrastructure (like QuickBooks to monitor our finances). Valentine’s Day opened sunny and cold, but we had a terrific turnout for a buffet lunch at Copeland’s New Orleans restaurant. After the feast 16 of us piled into the old Cadillacs for the drive to Jasper for a wine tasting at Sharp Mountain Vineyards. For the 2016 chili cook-off we had a great turnout: 53 was the head count, with an estimated 20 classic cars in the driveway. We celebrated SPRINGTIME by conducting a Driving Miss Daisy Tour. After that, Terry Bird and Clark Lemon opened their home on Ponce de Leon, and served as the ultimate southern hosts. That spring we also gathered in Chattanooga for the Coker Cruise-in, which was a warm-up for our BOPC Show – where we had 19 Cadillacs and 32 members on the field. Later that May we attended the Atlanta Motoring Festival at Chateau Elan and raised money for veterans support groups at Cadillac of Lake Lanier. Our Spring Driving Tour was to Huntsville to visit the Space Center (and on our way home Don Ingram’s Used Car Lot – Cadillac graveyard – in Boaz AL). In June we had a great turnout for the downtown Tucker cruise-in and a visit to the Cofer Collection oof Thoroughbreds. We visited Dick Peden’s car collection and his horse farm to celebrate our annual Members’ Appreciation Picnic. In October we were the hit of the show at downtown Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery, “Sunday in the Park.” We represented well (11 cars) at the 35th Annual Veterans’ Day Parade in downtown Atlanta, sponsored by member Bob Hendershott in his ’65 Eldorado. Our Christmas banquet was a huge success at ACC. Our Member of the Year was Lewis Kelly, who was a leader in innovating on behalf of the club’s members. Lewis planned and managed the program for Challenge Coins, which the club sells on the CLC website to benefit the club. Lewis also began a tradition of awarding a trophy each year for the member who traveled the farthest to the annual Christmas banquet, and to the oldest present at the banquet. Lewis is also our biggest cheerleader, prompting many a new event or driving tour.
The highlight of 2017 was being named the CLC’s winner of the Norm Uhlir Award, which is given to the Most Active CLC region, for the second time ever for its 2016 season. That makes Peach State CLC one of only a couple of CLC regions to have earned the award, more than once.
For Valentine’s Day in 2017 we rallied at Wolf Mountain Winery for a terrific brunch. We had our annual Dave Comstock Chili Cook-off at Peden’s once again – always a hugely popular event. We didn’t make it out of February before we gathered at Dreamland BBQ then toured Jim Gebhardt’s California Car Company in Roswell. Guy Van Ort was our host and organizer for a combination scavenger hunt and a timed road rally. The St. Patrick’s Day parade was a great day in March. We had a catered lunch and visited Dave Caffey’s restoration shop and Gateway consignments. Later in March we visited the governor’s mansion and got a tour from Governor and Mrs. Deal before touring (and having lunch in) the historic Swan Coach House on the grounds of the Atlanta History Center. We were turned out in numbers for the Avondale Estates Easter Parade! Our Spring Driving tour for 2017 was through Juliette Georgia, where we had lunch at the Whistle Stop Café, site of the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes.” We were on our way to Macon, “Where Soul Lives!” Our annual Membership Appreciation picnic was held up north: We drove to Dillard and through Lakemont to Jeff and Debi Butler’s home to see Jeff’s restoration work, then to Serenity Cellars for the picnic. We spent the night at the Hofbrau House in Helen before driving home the next day. In October we did the Swan Coach House again, this time as guests of the Early Ford V8 Club, which has been our partners for the Avondale Easter Parade for years. Also in October we co-hosted with Cadillac of Lake Lanier another fund raiser for veteran and troubled teens. This time it was a judged show at CLL, which raised over $3000 for this great cause. Our Fall Driving Tour was to Hilton Head Island to attend the Car Club Showcase and the concours d’elegance. On Saturday, Buster Miller took Best American in his ’58 coupe (a crystal decanter). Rob Johns took Best Cadillac in his ’41 Series 62 convertible. Tom Di Nucci won an award for his ’61 Series 62 convertible. Doug Bailey won a Crescent ribbon in the ’66 Eldo (similar to a Peoples’ Choice runner-up award). On Sunday Martina Butler took Best of Class in her division, 1963-1973 American Classics. Paul Phillips finished out of the running with his ’41 Sixty Special, which was absolutely stunning. It was a HUGE and very competitive class. In December we joined the annual Children’s Christmas Parade, sponsored by Children’s HealthCare of Atlanta. Three of us participated in the 2017 Christmas parade, which observers maintained was twice the size of the St. Patrick’s Day or Veterans’ Day parades. Mark Allbaugh drove his 1941 convertible, Lee Dunn drove his ’76 Eldorado, “Goldilocks,” and Doug Bailey drove the ’66 Eldorado, “Jolly Green Giant.” Doug chauffeured Kyle and Kendall James and their mom – the Grand Marshals of the parade!
Also in 2017 Peach State’s Sandy Barth, board secretary and webmaster, was awarded the CLC’s Web Site Merit Award after setting the bar high for online regional communications. Dick Peden was awarded the Member of the Year, in recognition for the many years he and his wife hosted the Annual Dave Comstock Chili Cook-off and new year’s planning event in Alpharetta. Dick is always a great host, and so generous with his time and high class showroom.
We kicked off 2018 with a group visit to Blue Moon Cycles, to see John Landstrom’s collection of cars and motorcycles. We also had a Cadillac Clinic at Cadillac of Lake Lanier, where owner Marty Pecora pays his mechanics to come and help us diagnose our classic Cadillacs. The chili cook-off was, as always, a terrific success and well attended. Someone always surprises us with their homemade chili and this year was no different. We held our Valentine’s Day brunch at Garland Mountain winery and shooting lodge, where 30 of us ate, socialized and shot skeet for the day. We showcased our Cadillacs at the Canton “Driving Miss Daisy” theater production in March, and we drove the St. Patrick’s Day Parade once again. When April rolled around, it was time for the Avondale Estates Easter Parade, and we turned out in droves. In May we took our turn at hosting the 37th Annual BOPC Show. We staged quite an event, with a dinner reserved at the Embassy Suites, and over 100 cars on the show field. In June we headed west, to the CLC Grand Nationals. Think of the last time you were in central Texas. Was it hotter than a jalapeno’s armpit? Heck yeah, it was. We were there and never stopped sweating! From June 5th through the 10th the Peach State was represented by 35 (!) members at the CLC Grand Nationals. It was over 100 degrees a couple days, in the midst of a drought. I’d say it was positively heroic that Peach State showed up with the largest legation of ANY of the CLC regions… We are getting a reputation for our activity level, and especially for our attendance at Grand Nationals. Let’s just say we travel well! Fully seventeen of us actually DROVE a car over 1,000 miles each way to attend. Fifteen of those folks were driving vintage Cadillacs! In July we participated in one of our favorite events, lunch at the Sonic Drive-in, then parking in the middle of Main Street at the Tucker cruise-in, followed by a tour of the Cofer Stable of Thoroughbreds conducted by curator and longtime friend of Peach State CLC, Cecil McCall. Also in July 26 of us visited member Stephen Sauer’s collection of thousands of model cars. Tim the Milkman Bearden and Bill, videographers and web hosts known as “Hot Rod Madness” were there. They shot a ton of footage of our group celebrating all things Cadillac. Toward the end of the day they gave us a chance to promote the Peach State Cadillac & LaSalle Club on video and we took advantage of the offer!
Our Fall Driving Tour was titled “Muscle Cars, Red-Tailed Stars, Gators and Taters.” We ran the backroads to Alexander City AL, to visit Welborn’s Muscle Car Collection. We stopped in Kowaliga, where Hank Williams wrote "Kaw-liga" while looking out onto the Kowaliga Basin from his cabin on Lake Martin. We were stunned to catch the history of the Tuskegee Airmen at the Red Tail Museum in Tuskegee AL. We spent the weekend at the Lakepoint Lodge at Lake Eufala. Next day, Roger and Faye Williams and Lee Dunn drove over to town and picked up our Cadillac hero, George Celani. We toured Eufala’s historic homes, including George’s. Over the course of four days, we had driven a total of just over 450 miles round trip to the south Alabama lake country and the historic little town of Eufaula, Alabama. Along the way we stretched twelve Cadillacs along some of the smoothest and most scenic “blue highways” we have ever encountered. We visited a world-renowned muscle car museum, spent time with the Red Tail Squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen, and toured Eufaula’s historic antebellum homes. We ran some lights, did some U-turns, laughed and cried, tipped a few and ate like kings. We inhaled a ton of nature’s summer beauty. Best of all, we spent quality time with each other and with George Celani. Friends, it don’t get much better’n dis!
In September we hosted our Annual Membership Appreciation Picnic at Serenity Cellars Vineyards in Cleveland, GA. And later in the month we participated in the 3rd Annual Atlanta concours d’elegance at Chateau Elan. We’re out driving on a Saturday in early November 2018, and a man shouts at us from a step on Main Street in Jasper GA, "We're glad you're here! Nice ride!" The Woodbridge Inn sits in beautiful downtown Jasper, Georgia, and it's a worthy destination in its own right. Across the wooden bridge and shining in the sunlight was "Patsy," Buster's and Kim's '58. Marking the territory; hard to miss. We docked the Turk next to Patsy and found Sandy was there already in "Monica," Mark and Herman were there in the silver Talisman, as were Marty and Doug in the green Allante. Lee and Mary Jean barged in behind the tiller of "Goldilocks," with Tom and Linda in tow in the white '61. Jimmy and Zane rolled up in the '99 Deville, and finally Ron and Jill Pair in the striking blue '37 sedan. When we gathered on the porch with the Andersons (who rode with the Millers) and the Hurleys (in a modern ride), we had 21 Peach Staters and nine old Cadillacs! Just a typical Fall Saturday with Peach State CLC. Later we headed on out to the Fainting Goat Vineyards and made it a day.
Judy Winchell was awarded the Member of the Year award in 2018 for her annual contributions to the good of the club. She is the host of our annual Christmas banquet, which has been held at the Atlanta Country Club in East Cobb County for many years.
Peach State CLC had 45 members and guests at the Dave Comstock Chili Cook-off in February 2019. This time Cecil McCall hosted us at the Stable of Thoroughbreds in Tucker. Mac Randall won the prize for best chili, and we had a private tour of the collection by Chip Cofer himself. Later in February we held our annual Members’ Appreciation picnic at Garland Mountain Sporting Clays in Waleska. Lee Dunn and Tom Di Nucci did the planning. Bob Knell won the skeet shooting prize and the Andersons won the cornhole tourney. In March Bill and Ann Marsh welcomed us to their garage for a Cadillac Clinic. This was a really good clinic, and several of our Cadillacs benefitted from the attention. After, we ran over to Stone Mountain Village to have lunch at the German Bakery. The Second Annual Hope Center Car and Truck Show was held in Cartersville, GA on Saturday, March 30, 2019. Donald and Dolly Smalley, in their Fleetwood were awarded a Top Ten trophy. The Buick Club hosted the 38th Annual Peach Blossom BOPC Show in April, and the Peach State had a great showing of Cadillacs. On May 19th we began our 2019 Spring Driving Tour to western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mtns. “Let there be SMOKE” was the theme. Belching deep black smoke from her stack, the “Steam of the Smokies” chugged out of Bryson City. This WWII-era engine hauled us into the Nantahala Gorge on a 44-mile excursion trip, missing nary a belch. Our tour group consisted of 25 members from four states in a dozen cars. On June 16th we attended the CLC Grand National meet in Louisville. Again, Peach State showed up in numbers: 42 members and 11 trophies awarded! In August we visited the “Chariots of the Gods,” a private collection in Ball Ground and retired to Main Street for lunch. A few heartier souls drove back to Canton in time for the Po Boys cruise-in. We lost our buddy Lee Dunn in September. His memorial service was on a beautiful afternoon at Rydal's Pine Log United Methodist church near Waleska. We were missing Lee, but it was a sweet reunion with MJ. We had at least 25-30 of us joining an equal number of family members and another number of the Dunns' church family. As Jack Hurley noted, it was Standing Room Only.
In November we headed back to Savannah and Hilton Head Island as part of our Fall Driving Tour, staying at the Beach Front Resort and attending the Car Club Showcase at the invitation of the concours hosts. That was one long line: a ’66 Eldorado, ’58 coupe, ’51 Fleetwood, ’61 convertible, ’70 SDV, ’76 Talisman, ’77 Fleetwood, plus the “modern” cars. That’s a ton of tailfins, taillights and tall tales! We visited the Laurel and Hardy Museum and the Ogeechee River Car Collection along the way, and the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum while we were in town. Chalk up another victory for Peach State Cadillac & LaSalle Club. We had an awesome long weekend, compiling 750 miles round trip in four days. We displayed eight Cadillacs on the field, and several won trophies. On Saturday, Buster Miller took Best American; Donald and Dollie Smalley and Rob Johns took Crescent Awards. Eddie and Suzanne Bibb took a Top Five award on Sunday’s field with their ’51 Fleetwood. Martina and Frank Butler took Best in Class with their ’64 Eldorado. Several of us hope to earn our Senior Touring badges with this leg of touring. The 2019 Atlanta Concours d’Elegance was held at the Tyler Perry Studios. The original Ft. McPherson parade field provided a very scenic location. In attendance at the event from the Peach State Cadillac and LaSalle Club were Forest Ward, Michael Marr, Buster Miller, Mark Nichols, Doug Bailey, Donnie Bentley, and Donald and Dolly Smalley. The cars that attended were Forest’s ’56 Coupe, Michael’s ‘58 Eldorado, Buster’s ’58 Coupe, Mark’s ’64 Fleetwood, Doug’s ’66 Eldorado, Donnie’s ’67 Eldorado, and Donald’s ’77 Fleetwood. Also in November we were able to send the Cobb Police Athletic League, Piedmont Church’s “Love Does” food pantry, and the Navy Seal Foundation EACH $1,117.
At the annual Christmas banquet at Atlanta Country Club, Buster Miller was awarded the Member of the Year trophy for 2019.
In January 2020 our first event was a visit to member Joe Nichols’ model train collection in Dunwoody, where 17 of us were thrilled to have a demonstration of model railroading. In February we hosted our 6th annual Valentine’s Day Brunch, this time at the German Bakery in Stone Mountain, where 24 of us enjoyed the German vittles and a visit to the Marshes’ collection But COVID hit us like everyone else in the spring of 2020. It put a serious pinch on car club activities throughout the year. By April we had had enough, and Mark Anthony organized a Perimeter Crawl, in which we rallied on the north side on I-285 and mostly stayed in our cars, circling the city – a great way to celebrate the old cars while remaining safe. We didn’t have another sponsored event until September, when we ventured out to an all-outdoors car parade hosted by Woodstock Baptist Church. Afterwards we toured the back roads over to Canton, where we visited the National Cemetery. In September we also had another Cadillac Clinic, this time at member Art Gardner’s “Garage Mahal” in Marietta. In October we participated in the GTO Association’s BOPC Show at Piedmont church. In November we drove to Nashville for our Fall Driving Tour. Our write-up made The Self-Starter. Read it here: https://www.peachstateclc.org/uploads/6/8/9/5/68956957/nashville_tour_from_clc_magazine.pdf
Sandy Partridge earned the Member of the Year award in 2020, in part for helping to organize driving tours and supporting the Christmas banquets.
In the Spring of 2021 we began with a Spring Driving tour, this time to Warm Springs to visit the Little White House and surrounding area. Our team of travelers shared a 270-mile, three-day journey. We braved the elements, and we finessed some challenges to our plans. We did it together. There was some griping and a fair amount of good-natured kidding. But that makes us more of a FAMILY than just another a car club. With us there’s a depth of feeling, a sense of belonging, of caring for one another. “Get through this and survive to drive another day…” Twenty folks cruising in a dozen cars, caring only about their own rights and interests, is no way to discover the countryside. That’s a mule train, not a tour. Peach State does not tour in a dozen steel Conestoga wagons, we travel as family. First stop: Moreland’s Main Street was our first stop, at the Lewis Grizzard and Erskine Caldwell museum. Our member Hal Raper, whose friends call him Toby, was raised in Warm Springs by his mom and dad, a rehab specialist and a doctor who met at the polio rehabilitation center in town. Toby took over the tour guidance. He drove us around the campus and introduced the center’s director and staff, who showed an immense degree of respect for the obviously well-known Dr. Raper. The staff gave us a detailed orientation to the facility made famous by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We rode to the Little White House and set up a car show that attracted a good deal of attention in the lot. Speaking from the intensity of personal experience, FDR (er, I mean Toby) gave us a thoroughly captivating orientation to the president’s vehicles, his loves and challenges, and his last days. We were truly enriched by Toby’s accounts, and the artifacts were highly educational. After breakfast we walked a bit, and then got behind Toby’s black ’56 sedan for the ride to and through Callaway Gardens. We were JUST in time for the Birds of Prey presentation. In May we had the 39th annual BOPC Show, where 9 of our 27 cars took a trophy. In June board member Dave Coakley organized a day of fun and cars in support of cancer survivors sponsored by the nonprofit organization, Beyond the Ribbon, Inc. This was in Lawrenceville, and we had a good turnout of cars and people. In September there was a cruise-in at Piedmont Church for a good cause, and we supported that event too. In December we visited the new Savoy Museum in Cartersville, and later that week hosted our annual Christmas banquet.
Art Gardner was awarded the Member of the Year award in 2021.
We kicked off 2022 by planning for the 45th annual Peach Blossom Buick-Olds-Pontiac-Cadillac Show (BOPC), in which Peach State CLC was once again the host club. On February 5th we had our annual Dave Comstock Chili Cookoff and spring events planning session at Dick Peden’s showroom. Dick had sold the majority of his collector cars, but we were still fortunate to enjoy those that remain (and Dick’s noted hospitality). We began planning for another Cadillac Clinic at Art Gardner’s garage, and started preparing for co-sponsoring the CLC’s National Driving Tour, which was to roll down the coast from Virginia Beach VA to Hilton Head Island for another visit to the concours. We accepted the HHI concours invitation in February. In March Bailey facilitated the sale of the 500-cubic inch Cadillac engine that had been donated to the club by Bill and Anne Marsh. It went to a car guy known through the ROMEO club, Bill Abrams. In March we also initiated a new dealership partner with Jim Ellis Cadillac in Atlanta, because our previous partner, Marty Pecora at Cadillac of Lake Lanier sold his Cadillac dealership. On April 17th we participated in an abbreviated Avondale Estates Easter parade (shortened by COVID). We also supported the “Beyond the Ribbon” fund raiser in Lawrenceville, as coordinated by board member Dave Coakley. On May 6 and 7 we hosted the 40th Annual Peach Blossom BOPC Show at Piedmont Church in Marietta. It was a rousing success, especially since it was the first one after the mostly return to post-pandemic procedures. A week later we headed out to Augusta in a caravan to stretch our Cadillac legs for the 2022 Spring Driving tour. Our close-knit group stayed at the Partridge Inn and experienced Augusta together once again. In June we showed off our iron at a run of local (one-day) cruise-ins in Cartersville, Calhoun, Johns Creek, Alpharetta and Piedmont Church. Later in June was the CLC Grand National meet in the Chicago area, and a number of Peach Staters attended that event. On July 9th a few of us made the run up to north Georgia to Hiawassee just for the miles of it. A week later Mark Anthony and Bailey supported an entrepreneur-building promotion with their Sixties Cadillacs on Howell Mill Road in Atlanta. On August 13th we visited the new Savoy Auto Museum in Cartersville. In October we participated in the Roswell Motoring Festival. For our contribution to the CLC’s National Driving Tour Bailey designed and the club printed the 2022 Tour book for the CLC. Our 2022 Members Appreciation event was held at Big Door Vineyards in White Georgia. On November 3rd the CLC National Driving Tour began unofficially when several Peach Staters headed out for Virginia Beach. The tour officially began on Sunday, November 6. Participating were Jimmy Leonard, Mark Nichols, Eddie Bibb, Jeff Greene and Ray Humphrey. All ended up in Hilton Head for the concours, where Jimmy took Best Cadillac honors at the Car Club Showcase. On November 11th another contingent of Peach State CLC folks began our Fall Driving tour, this time back to Greenville SC. Ten people in seven cars made this drive, enjoyed the unique atmosphere of a resurgent Greenville, and earned mileage toward their CLC touring badges.
On December 3 we had our 11th Christmas banquet at the Atlanta Country Club. There were 65 members and guests in attendance. We auctioned off memorabilia and took in cash through a 50-60 raffle. We awarded trophies for best Cadillac on the field, longest drive, oldest driver, Most Active Members for ’22 (David and Jody Wall), and Member of the Year (Mike Anderson). We celebrated the contributions of two board members who were rolling off the board (Dave Coakley and Doug Bailey – who had just finished his tenth year as president). We also welcomed two new members to the board: Buster Miller as Communications Director and David Wall as Vice President. Mark Nichols will become the new president on January 1st.
Soon after the ’07 Grand Nationals Mike Posey tendered his resignation. Stan Tucker became the new president, and found his dream car, the “Godfather,” his Preservation Award-winning 1956 Fleetwood Sixty Special. Stan brought the experience of a creative Activities Director to the leadership role. During his tenure, in the able hands of Lee and Mary Jean Dunn (the new Activities Directors) the club did even more driving tours, including a fabulous return trip to Chattanooga (Stan’s old haunt) for visits to the Chickamauga Battlefield, Rock City, Missionary Ridge, and the Coker headquarters and museum. We were invited to join Harold Coker, their founder, in a caravan to his home in Cleveland, TN. There he made us coffee and showed us around his private collection of brass-era Thomas Flyers and steam cars.
In ’07 Stan recruited a new Membership Director, Doug Bailey, to take over for Elizabeth Boggs, who was retiring. Doug came from the ranks of the relatively new members, having joined the Peach State region to learn how to find his dream car. By 2005 he had found his “dream Cadillac,” the ’58 extended deck sedan he calls “the Turk.” Hooked by the Savannah experience, Doug took on membership recruitment with the zeal of the “newbie.” Combined with all the great activities, the club grew remarkably well over the ensuing years, annually adding to the numbers even as some members “moved on.”
A scan of the 2008 membership roster reveals an unavoidable truth: Although our cars seem to carry on for decades serving several owners honorably – we owners are steadily aging out of the hobby. Of the 100+ members listed in ’08, nearly half have moved on: A number of cherished, active members have passed away each year. Others find they cannot maintain their activity level or they pass their Cadillacs on to younger hobbyists. In general it seems we lose around eight members a year to retirement from the hobby or to that Cadillac graveyard in the sky. Harsh to think that we won’t be able to keep crawling under our cars forever, let alone drive them into the sunset… but facts are facts. Enjoy your car now, while you still can! And pass the word, because it takes eight or ten new members each and every year to stay in growth mode!
Our club moved into the 21st Century by converting to electronic communications in a big way. Lewis Schwartz designed and created a new web site, and began publishing updates there – including our new activities schedules and contact information for club officers. (We received the CLC Web Site Merit Award in 2013.) Doug started up an ACCESS database to keep better track of memberships and renewals, and began an earnest attempt to reach out to current CLC members who were not enrolled in Peach State. He also took over the editing chores for the TAILFIN, converting it to an MS Publisher format in full color, and publishing quarterly.
In 2010 Peach State took its rightful place among the Georgia regions of the Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac clubs and hosted its first-ever BOPC Show. It was fun, and a great success. We followed that up with an even better and bigger BOPC show in May 2014. And we will do it all over again in 2018. Member Bill Greene got us invited to the downtown Tucker cruise-ins starting in 2010 – as he converted from his beloved Fords to Cadillac he dragged his Ford buddies into the fold. Now we are a special attraction, lined up down the center of the street every June. While we are in Tucker we often stop by Chip Cofer’s collection to spend time in the presence of majesty: the Thirties classics from Cadillac, Duesenberg, and Packard. We are putting the rush on to get Chip's curator, Cecil McCall, to join our club. He drives and maintains at least three classic Cadillacs for the Cofers: a 1914 touring car, a '31 seven-passenger phaeton, and a '32 Fleetwood. The collection also contains two Duesenbergs, '35 SJ and a '35 Model J that used to belong to Mrs. John Jacob Astor (widowed by the Titanic disaster. http://www.thecofercollection.com
Editor Emerson Duke produced six TAILFINs a year between ’10 and ’11, using contributions from throughout the club. In 2010 Jay Friedman won the prestigious CLC Author of the Year Award for his library of technical and travel articles for The Self Starter. We have several other members who have contributed to The Self Starter, as well. We started a very popular activity in 2011: Our quarterly Cadillac Clinics engaged from ten to 15 members in coffee and donuts while a handful worked on a few cars. Host Bob Winchell opened his shop and lifts to us for Sunday afternoons in decent weather. After five years of this Winch handed over the reins to Marty Pecora, owner of Cadillac of Lake Lanier in Gainesville. In 2011 member Dick Peden began hosting our annual Dave Comstock Chili Cook-off at his beautiful garage in Alpharetta. Surrounded by Dick’s nearly perfect collection of Fifties cruisers, we bring our special chilis for judging by Dave’s widow Marty – who knows better than anyone how much Dave loved chili.
In 2011 Peach State CLC was awarded the Norm Uhlir Award for Most Active Region! This traveling award contains brass plaques with the region’s name and its leader – and it was accepted at the 2012 Grand National by president Stan Tucker. We resumed the big, popular spring and fall driving tours about then too, heading 300-500 miles round trips in all directions. These are among our most popular events, and we have been acknowledged by CLC for them.
In 2012 we found new TAILFIN editors, Bill Rush and Sandy Barth – both professionals who spent countless unbilled hours polishing our club’s reputation and presentation. Unfortunately this labor of love was way too demanding for full-time pros: Bill had to “retire” in 2015. In 2016 Sandy developed our current web site, this is our 21st Century TAILFIN, and we are as proud of it as we have been of the first one Frank printed on peach stock. No prints! Sandy continues as our club secretary, and she is doing a fabulous job.
At the end of 2012 Stan Tucker retired from the president’s job to go do some REAL work, and prioritize his family. He has continued to serve us well as senior leadership, passing along his experience and sage advice. He continues with Frank Butler as our auctioneers for the annual memorabilia auction to benefit the club. Doug Bailey moved into the president’s role, along with a new board. Our entire board works with Activities Directors, Tom and Linda Di Nucci, to make sure all events are well planned and exciting, to keep current members engaged and to attract new ones. In 2014 Martina Butler, our steadying hand, stepped aside from the Secretary’s position in order to devote more time to travel, although she has continued as Peach State’s liaison with the CLC as a CLC board member. She travels largely at her own expense twice each year to attend national board meetings and to keep Peach State in good sted with the national board.
When Lee Dunn retired from serving as our Activities Director, Tom and Linda Di Nucci stepped in. With help from the Dunns the Di Nuccis have kept us BUSY for years now… and they promise to keep going for the near future! Sandy Partridge gave us a bonafide accountant in the treasurer’s role for several years, then sat out a year in 2015. Michelle Anderson stepped into the treasurer’s role in 2015 and has been a major force. She automated the books using her experience with QuickBooks, and revolutionized our ability to stay on top of membership renewals. Her software supports monthly notices as members hit their anniversaries. (We roll memberships on anniversary dates so that we don’t have to pro-rate memberships for those who join in mid-year.) Michelle has made the membership director’s job much easier, freeing that person for recruiting efforts. She also manages the expenses for our MANY fund raisers and special projects, such as logo apparel, driving tours, name badges and challenge coins, and the Lake Lanier Cadillac event where we raise money for veterans. Buster Miller served two great years as Membership Director, then retired in 2016. Sandy Partridge rolled back into that spot in 2016, and remains there. Annette and Ron Benneche served three years as Communications co-Directors, then rolled off the board in 2016. Lucille O’Neill took over the Communications role and has made it her own – if you get a birthday or anniversary wish on Facebook, that’s Lucille keeping track! Lucille also takes a huge burden off the president by helping to organize meetings and to follow up with members who lose loved ones or spend some time in the hospital. Sadly, we lost our good friend and vice president Kevin Garrison suddenly in late 2015... he continues to be deeply missed. Longtime member Mark Nichols assumed the position of Vice President, and is being groomed to take over when Doug wears out.
2016 was Peach State CLC’s Best Ever, judging by nearly any measure you could come up with. Most new folks in a year? Tied for first with 23. Most participation by members in club events? Over 50% of our members participated in at least one of our twenty big events this year. Most big events in a year? Almost so: at 20 we came close to our record of 22. Most progress with the club’s organization? You bet! We had all our board positions filled with excited and engaged folks who are ALL IN. Financials? Yup: Our bank balance is growing, even as we do a better job of giving back value to our members – by sponsoring more trophies, subsidizing more of the entry fees for our activities, and spending on infrastructure (like QuickBooks to monitor our finances). Valentine’s Day opened sunny and cold, but we had a terrific turnout for a buffet lunch at Copeland’s New Orleans restaurant. After the feast 16 of us piled into the old Cadillacs for the drive to Jasper for a wine tasting at Sharp Mountain Vineyards. For the 2016 chili cook-off we had a great turnout: 53 was the head count, with an estimated 20 classic cars in the driveway. We celebrated SPRINGTIME by conducting a Driving Miss Daisy Tour. After that, Terry Bird and Clark Lemon opened their home on Ponce de Leon, and served as the ultimate southern hosts. That spring we also gathered in Chattanooga for the Coker Cruise-in, which was a warm-up for our BOPC Show – where we had 19 Cadillacs and 32 members on the field. Later that May we attended the Atlanta Motoring Festival at Chateau Elan and raised money for veterans support groups at Cadillac of Lake Lanier. Our Spring Driving Tour was to Huntsville to visit the Space Center (and on our way home Don Ingram’s Used Car Lot – Cadillac graveyard – in Boaz AL). In June we had a great turnout for the downtown Tucker cruise-in and a visit to the Cofer Collection oof Thoroughbreds. We visited Dick Peden’s car collection and his horse farm to celebrate our annual Members’ Appreciation Picnic. In October we were the hit of the show at downtown Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery, “Sunday in the Park.” We represented well (11 cars) at the 35th Annual Veterans’ Day Parade in downtown Atlanta, sponsored by member Bob Hendershott in his ’65 Eldorado. Our Christmas banquet was a huge success at ACC. Our Member of the Year was Lewis Kelly, who was a leader in innovating on behalf of the club’s members. Lewis planned and managed the program for Challenge Coins, which the club sells on the CLC website to benefit the club. Lewis also began a tradition of awarding a trophy each year for the member who traveled the farthest to the annual Christmas banquet, and to the oldest present at the banquet. Lewis is also our biggest cheerleader, prompting many a new event or driving tour.
The highlight of 2017 was being named the CLC’s winner of the Norm Uhlir Award, which is given to the Most Active CLC region, for the second time ever for its 2016 season. That makes Peach State CLC one of only a couple of CLC regions to have earned the award, more than once.
For Valentine’s Day in 2017 we rallied at Wolf Mountain Winery for a terrific brunch. We had our annual Dave Comstock Chili Cook-off at Peden’s once again – always a hugely popular event. We didn’t make it out of February before we gathered at Dreamland BBQ then toured Jim Gebhardt’s California Car Company in Roswell. Guy Van Ort was our host and organizer for a combination scavenger hunt and a timed road rally. The St. Patrick’s Day parade was a great day in March. We had a catered lunch and visited Dave Caffey’s restoration shop and Gateway consignments. Later in March we visited the governor’s mansion and got a tour from Governor and Mrs. Deal before touring (and having lunch in) the historic Swan Coach House on the grounds of the Atlanta History Center. We were turned out in numbers for the Avondale Estates Easter Parade! Our Spring Driving tour for 2017 was through Juliette Georgia, where we had lunch at the Whistle Stop Café, site of the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes.” We were on our way to Macon, “Where Soul Lives!” Our annual Membership Appreciation picnic was held up north: We drove to Dillard and through Lakemont to Jeff and Debi Butler’s home to see Jeff’s restoration work, then to Serenity Cellars for the picnic. We spent the night at the Hofbrau House in Helen before driving home the next day. In October we did the Swan Coach House again, this time as guests of the Early Ford V8 Club, which has been our partners for the Avondale Easter Parade for years. Also in October we co-hosted with Cadillac of Lake Lanier another fund raiser for veteran and troubled teens. This time it was a judged show at CLL, which raised over $3000 for this great cause. Our Fall Driving Tour was to Hilton Head Island to attend the Car Club Showcase and the concours d’elegance. On Saturday, Buster Miller took Best American in his ’58 coupe (a crystal decanter). Rob Johns took Best Cadillac in his ’41 Series 62 convertible. Tom Di Nucci won an award for his ’61 Series 62 convertible. Doug Bailey won a Crescent ribbon in the ’66 Eldo (similar to a Peoples’ Choice runner-up award). On Sunday Martina Butler took Best of Class in her division, 1963-1973 American Classics. Paul Phillips finished out of the running with his ’41 Sixty Special, which was absolutely stunning. It was a HUGE and very competitive class. In December we joined the annual Children’s Christmas Parade, sponsored by Children’s HealthCare of Atlanta. Three of us participated in the 2017 Christmas parade, which observers maintained was twice the size of the St. Patrick’s Day or Veterans’ Day parades. Mark Allbaugh drove his 1941 convertible, Lee Dunn drove his ’76 Eldorado, “Goldilocks,” and Doug Bailey drove the ’66 Eldorado, “Jolly Green Giant.” Doug chauffeured Kyle and Kendall James and their mom – the Grand Marshals of the parade!
Also in 2017 Peach State’s Sandy Barth, board secretary and webmaster, was awarded the CLC’s Web Site Merit Award after setting the bar high for online regional communications. Dick Peden was awarded the Member of the Year, in recognition for the many years he and his wife hosted the Annual Dave Comstock Chili Cook-off and new year’s planning event in Alpharetta. Dick is always a great host, and so generous with his time and high class showroom.
We kicked off 2018 with a group visit to Blue Moon Cycles, to see John Landstrom’s collection of cars and motorcycles. We also had a Cadillac Clinic at Cadillac of Lake Lanier, where owner Marty Pecora pays his mechanics to come and help us diagnose our classic Cadillacs. The chili cook-off was, as always, a terrific success and well attended. Someone always surprises us with their homemade chili and this year was no different. We held our Valentine’s Day brunch at Garland Mountain winery and shooting lodge, where 30 of us ate, socialized and shot skeet for the day. We showcased our Cadillacs at the Canton “Driving Miss Daisy” theater production in March, and we drove the St. Patrick’s Day Parade once again. When April rolled around, it was time for the Avondale Estates Easter Parade, and we turned out in droves. In May we took our turn at hosting the 37th Annual BOPC Show. We staged quite an event, with a dinner reserved at the Embassy Suites, and over 100 cars on the show field. In June we headed west, to the CLC Grand Nationals. Think of the last time you were in central Texas. Was it hotter than a jalapeno’s armpit? Heck yeah, it was. We were there and never stopped sweating! From June 5th through the 10th the Peach State was represented by 35 (!) members at the CLC Grand Nationals. It was over 100 degrees a couple days, in the midst of a drought. I’d say it was positively heroic that Peach State showed up with the largest legation of ANY of the CLC regions… We are getting a reputation for our activity level, and especially for our attendance at Grand Nationals. Let’s just say we travel well! Fully seventeen of us actually DROVE a car over 1,000 miles each way to attend. Fifteen of those folks were driving vintage Cadillacs! In July we participated in one of our favorite events, lunch at the Sonic Drive-in, then parking in the middle of Main Street at the Tucker cruise-in, followed by a tour of the Cofer Stable of Thoroughbreds conducted by curator and longtime friend of Peach State CLC, Cecil McCall. Also in July 26 of us visited member Stephen Sauer’s collection of thousands of model cars. Tim the Milkman Bearden and Bill, videographers and web hosts known as “Hot Rod Madness” were there. They shot a ton of footage of our group celebrating all things Cadillac. Toward the end of the day they gave us a chance to promote the Peach State Cadillac & LaSalle Club on video and we took advantage of the offer!
Our Fall Driving Tour was titled “Muscle Cars, Red-Tailed Stars, Gators and Taters.” We ran the backroads to Alexander City AL, to visit Welborn’s Muscle Car Collection. We stopped in Kowaliga, where Hank Williams wrote "Kaw-liga" while looking out onto the Kowaliga Basin from his cabin on Lake Martin. We were stunned to catch the history of the Tuskegee Airmen at the Red Tail Museum in Tuskegee AL. We spent the weekend at the Lakepoint Lodge at Lake Eufala. Next day, Roger and Faye Williams and Lee Dunn drove over to town and picked up our Cadillac hero, George Celani. We toured Eufala’s historic homes, including George’s. Over the course of four days, we had driven a total of just over 450 miles round trip to the south Alabama lake country and the historic little town of Eufaula, Alabama. Along the way we stretched twelve Cadillacs along some of the smoothest and most scenic “blue highways” we have ever encountered. We visited a world-renowned muscle car museum, spent time with the Red Tail Squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen, and toured Eufaula’s historic antebellum homes. We ran some lights, did some U-turns, laughed and cried, tipped a few and ate like kings. We inhaled a ton of nature’s summer beauty. Best of all, we spent quality time with each other and with George Celani. Friends, it don’t get much better’n dis!
In September we hosted our Annual Membership Appreciation Picnic at Serenity Cellars Vineyards in Cleveland, GA. And later in the month we participated in the 3rd Annual Atlanta concours d’elegance at Chateau Elan. We’re out driving on a Saturday in early November 2018, and a man shouts at us from a step on Main Street in Jasper GA, "We're glad you're here! Nice ride!" The Woodbridge Inn sits in beautiful downtown Jasper, Georgia, and it's a worthy destination in its own right. Across the wooden bridge and shining in the sunlight was "Patsy," Buster's and Kim's '58. Marking the territory; hard to miss. We docked the Turk next to Patsy and found Sandy was there already in "Monica," Mark and Herman were there in the silver Talisman, as were Marty and Doug in the green Allante. Lee and Mary Jean barged in behind the tiller of "Goldilocks," with Tom and Linda in tow in the white '61. Jimmy and Zane rolled up in the '99 Deville, and finally Ron and Jill Pair in the striking blue '37 sedan. When we gathered on the porch with the Andersons (who rode with the Millers) and the Hurleys (in a modern ride), we had 21 Peach Staters and nine old Cadillacs! Just a typical Fall Saturday with Peach State CLC. Later we headed on out to the Fainting Goat Vineyards and made it a day.
Judy Winchell was awarded the Member of the Year award in 2018 for her annual contributions to the good of the club. She is the host of our annual Christmas banquet, which has been held at the Atlanta Country Club in East Cobb County for many years.
Peach State CLC had 45 members and guests at the Dave Comstock Chili Cook-off in February 2019. This time Cecil McCall hosted us at the Stable of Thoroughbreds in Tucker. Mac Randall won the prize for best chili, and we had a private tour of the collection by Chip Cofer himself. Later in February we held our annual Members’ Appreciation picnic at Garland Mountain Sporting Clays in Waleska. Lee Dunn and Tom Di Nucci did the planning. Bob Knell won the skeet shooting prize and the Andersons won the cornhole tourney. In March Bill and Ann Marsh welcomed us to their garage for a Cadillac Clinic. This was a really good clinic, and several of our Cadillacs benefitted from the attention. After, we ran over to Stone Mountain Village to have lunch at the German Bakery. The Second Annual Hope Center Car and Truck Show was held in Cartersville, GA on Saturday, March 30, 2019. Donald and Dolly Smalley, in their Fleetwood were awarded a Top Ten trophy. The Buick Club hosted the 38th Annual Peach Blossom BOPC Show in April, and the Peach State had a great showing of Cadillacs. On May 19th we began our 2019 Spring Driving Tour to western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mtns. “Let there be SMOKE” was the theme. Belching deep black smoke from her stack, the “Steam of the Smokies” chugged out of Bryson City. This WWII-era engine hauled us into the Nantahala Gorge on a 44-mile excursion trip, missing nary a belch. Our tour group consisted of 25 members from four states in a dozen cars. On June 16th we attended the CLC Grand National meet in Louisville. Again, Peach State showed up in numbers: 42 members and 11 trophies awarded! In August we visited the “Chariots of the Gods,” a private collection in Ball Ground and retired to Main Street for lunch. A few heartier souls drove back to Canton in time for the Po Boys cruise-in. We lost our buddy Lee Dunn in September. His memorial service was on a beautiful afternoon at Rydal's Pine Log United Methodist church near Waleska. We were missing Lee, but it was a sweet reunion with MJ. We had at least 25-30 of us joining an equal number of family members and another number of the Dunns' church family. As Jack Hurley noted, it was Standing Room Only.
In November we headed back to Savannah and Hilton Head Island as part of our Fall Driving Tour, staying at the Beach Front Resort and attending the Car Club Showcase at the invitation of the concours hosts. That was one long line: a ’66 Eldorado, ’58 coupe, ’51 Fleetwood, ’61 convertible, ’70 SDV, ’76 Talisman, ’77 Fleetwood, plus the “modern” cars. That’s a ton of tailfins, taillights and tall tales! We visited the Laurel and Hardy Museum and the Ogeechee River Car Collection along the way, and the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum while we were in town. Chalk up another victory for Peach State Cadillac & LaSalle Club. We had an awesome long weekend, compiling 750 miles round trip in four days. We displayed eight Cadillacs on the field, and several won trophies. On Saturday, Buster Miller took Best American; Donald and Dollie Smalley and Rob Johns took Crescent Awards. Eddie and Suzanne Bibb took a Top Five award on Sunday’s field with their ’51 Fleetwood. Martina and Frank Butler took Best in Class with their ’64 Eldorado. Several of us hope to earn our Senior Touring badges with this leg of touring. The 2019 Atlanta Concours d’Elegance was held at the Tyler Perry Studios. The original Ft. McPherson parade field provided a very scenic location. In attendance at the event from the Peach State Cadillac and LaSalle Club were Forest Ward, Michael Marr, Buster Miller, Mark Nichols, Doug Bailey, Donnie Bentley, and Donald and Dolly Smalley. The cars that attended were Forest’s ’56 Coupe, Michael’s ‘58 Eldorado, Buster’s ’58 Coupe, Mark’s ’64 Fleetwood, Doug’s ’66 Eldorado, Donnie’s ’67 Eldorado, and Donald’s ’77 Fleetwood. Also in November we were able to send the Cobb Police Athletic League, Piedmont Church’s “Love Does” food pantry, and the Navy Seal Foundation EACH $1,117.
At the annual Christmas banquet at Atlanta Country Club, Buster Miller was awarded the Member of the Year trophy for 2019.
In January 2020 our first event was a visit to member Joe Nichols’ model train collection in Dunwoody, where 17 of us were thrilled to have a demonstration of model railroading. In February we hosted our 6th annual Valentine’s Day Brunch, this time at the German Bakery in Stone Mountain, where 24 of us enjoyed the German vittles and a visit to the Marshes’ collection But COVID hit us like everyone else in the spring of 2020. It put a serious pinch on car club activities throughout the year. By April we had had enough, and Mark Anthony organized a Perimeter Crawl, in which we rallied on the north side on I-285 and mostly stayed in our cars, circling the city – a great way to celebrate the old cars while remaining safe. We didn’t have another sponsored event until September, when we ventured out to an all-outdoors car parade hosted by Woodstock Baptist Church. Afterwards we toured the back roads over to Canton, where we visited the National Cemetery. In September we also had another Cadillac Clinic, this time at member Art Gardner’s “Garage Mahal” in Marietta. In October we participated in the GTO Association’s BOPC Show at Piedmont church. In November we drove to Nashville for our Fall Driving Tour. Our write-up made The Self-Starter. Read it here: https://www.peachstateclc.org/uploads/6/8/9/5/68956957/nashville_tour_from_clc_magazine.pdf
Sandy Partridge earned the Member of the Year award in 2020, in part for helping to organize driving tours and supporting the Christmas banquets.
In the Spring of 2021 we began with a Spring Driving tour, this time to Warm Springs to visit the Little White House and surrounding area. Our team of travelers shared a 270-mile, three-day journey. We braved the elements, and we finessed some challenges to our plans. We did it together. There was some griping and a fair amount of good-natured kidding. But that makes us more of a FAMILY than just another a car club. With us there’s a depth of feeling, a sense of belonging, of caring for one another. “Get through this and survive to drive another day…” Twenty folks cruising in a dozen cars, caring only about their own rights and interests, is no way to discover the countryside. That’s a mule train, not a tour. Peach State does not tour in a dozen steel Conestoga wagons, we travel as family. First stop: Moreland’s Main Street was our first stop, at the Lewis Grizzard and Erskine Caldwell museum. Our member Hal Raper, whose friends call him Toby, was raised in Warm Springs by his mom and dad, a rehab specialist and a doctor who met at the polio rehabilitation center in town. Toby took over the tour guidance. He drove us around the campus and introduced the center’s director and staff, who showed an immense degree of respect for the obviously well-known Dr. Raper. The staff gave us a detailed orientation to the facility made famous by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We rode to the Little White House and set up a car show that attracted a good deal of attention in the lot. Speaking from the intensity of personal experience, FDR (er, I mean Toby) gave us a thoroughly captivating orientation to the president’s vehicles, his loves and challenges, and his last days. We were truly enriched by Toby’s accounts, and the artifacts were highly educational. After breakfast we walked a bit, and then got behind Toby’s black ’56 sedan for the ride to and through Callaway Gardens. We were JUST in time for the Birds of Prey presentation. In May we had the 39th annual BOPC Show, where 9 of our 27 cars took a trophy. In June board member Dave Coakley organized a day of fun and cars in support of cancer survivors sponsored by the nonprofit organization, Beyond the Ribbon, Inc. This was in Lawrenceville, and we had a good turnout of cars and people. In September there was a cruise-in at Piedmont Church for a good cause, and we supported that event too. In December we visited the new Savoy Museum in Cartersville, and later that week hosted our annual Christmas banquet.
Art Gardner was awarded the Member of the Year award in 2021.
We kicked off 2022 by planning for the 45th annual Peach Blossom Buick-Olds-Pontiac-Cadillac Show (BOPC), in which Peach State CLC was once again the host club. On February 5th we had our annual Dave Comstock Chili Cookoff and spring events planning session at Dick Peden’s showroom. Dick had sold the majority of his collector cars, but we were still fortunate to enjoy those that remain (and Dick’s noted hospitality). We began planning for another Cadillac Clinic at Art Gardner’s garage, and started preparing for co-sponsoring the CLC’s National Driving Tour, which was to roll down the coast from Virginia Beach VA to Hilton Head Island for another visit to the concours. We accepted the HHI concours invitation in February. In March Bailey facilitated the sale of the 500-cubic inch Cadillac engine that had been donated to the club by Bill and Anne Marsh. It went to a car guy known through the ROMEO club, Bill Abrams. In March we also initiated a new dealership partner with Jim Ellis Cadillac in Atlanta, because our previous partner, Marty Pecora at Cadillac of Lake Lanier sold his Cadillac dealership. On April 17th we participated in an abbreviated Avondale Estates Easter parade (shortened by COVID). We also supported the “Beyond the Ribbon” fund raiser in Lawrenceville, as coordinated by board member Dave Coakley. On May 6 and 7 we hosted the 40th Annual Peach Blossom BOPC Show at Piedmont Church in Marietta. It was a rousing success, especially since it was the first one after the mostly return to post-pandemic procedures. A week later we headed out to Augusta in a caravan to stretch our Cadillac legs for the 2022 Spring Driving tour. Our close-knit group stayed at the Partridge Inn and experienced Augusta together once again. In June we showed off our iron at a run of local (one-day) cruise-ins in Cartersville, Calhoun, Johns Creek, Alpharetta and Piedmont Church. Later in June was the CLC Grand National meet in the Chicago area, and a number of Peach Staters attended that event. On July 9th a few of us made the run up to north Georgia to Hiawassee just for the miles of it. A week later Mark Anthony and Bailey supported an entrepreneur-building promotion with their Sixties Cadillacs on Howell Mill Road in Atlanta. On August 13th we visited the new Savoy Auto Museum in Cartersville. In October we participated in the Roswell Motoring Festival. For our contribution to the CLC’s National Driving Tour Bailey designed and the club printed the 2022 Tour book for the CLC. Our 2022 Members Appreciation event was held at Big Door Vineyards in White Georgia. On November 3rd the CLC National Driving Tour began unofficially when several Peach Staters headed out for Virginia Beach. The tour officially began on Sunday, November 6. Participating were Jimmy Leonard, Mark Nichols, Eddie Bibb, Jeff Greene and Ray Humphrey. All ended up in Hilton Head for the concours, where Jimmy took Best Cadillac honors at the Car Club Showcase. On November 11th another contingent of Peach State CLC folks began our Fall Driving tour, this time back to Greenville SC. Ten people in seven cars made this drive, enjoyed the unique atmosphere of a resurgent Greenville, and earned mileage toward their CLC touring badges.
On December 3 we had our 11th Christmas banquet at the Atlanta Country Club. There were 65 members and guests in attendance. We auctioned off memorabilia and took in cash through a 50-60 raffle. We awarded trophies for best Cadillac on the field, longest drive, oldest driver, Most Active Members for ’22 (David and Jody Wall), and Member of the Year (Mike Anderson). We celebrated the contributions of two board members who were rolling off the board (Dave Coakley and Doug Bailey – who had just finished his tenth year as president). We also welcomed two new members to the board: Buster Miller as Communications Director and David Wall as Vice President. Mark Nichols will become the new president on January 1st.
In 2017 Peach State CLC was awarded the 2016 Norm Uhlir Award for Most Active Region! We received another write-up in The Self-Starter for this award, for which we are very proud. This makes us arguably the best danged region in the 6400-member international CLC!
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In August 2017 the CLC awarded us the Website of Excellence Award! Our web master, Sandy Barth, received the coveted award after setting the bar high for any other regions of the CLC. As you can see by browsing around this site, Sandy has done some marvelous design work. And the site is VERY useful for tracking upcoming events, explaining to recruits what our club is all about, and keeping the past events well documented in write-ups and photos.
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Founders & Leaders
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Founders and Past Presidents[1] of the Peach State Cadillac & LaSalle Club
FOUNDERS: In 1992 the founding members and their Cadillacs were:
[1] “THE PEACH STATE REGION.” Authored by various members, including Jay Friedman, Frank Lindauer, Jim Apt and Mike Posey. (Article appeared in the August 1998 Issue of The Self Starter.) |
PAST PRESIDENTS: Past Presidents active in the club are LIFE members of Peach State CLC...
Each year as part of the preparation for the Year-End Christmas Party, we circulate nominations for “Member of the Year.” Board members are not eligible, and that allows us to recognize those members who are active, but who have not yet volunteered to take on official board responsibility. Our ulterior motive? To draw these outstanding members deeper into leadership of the club, to build a line of succession for future board membership! So far, it has worked like a charm! 2011 - Kevin Garrison 2012 - Bob Winchell 2013 - Bob Hendershott 2014 - Bill Greene 2015 - Jay Friedman 2016 - Lewis Kelly 2017 - Dick Peden 2018 - Judy Winchell 2019 - Buster Miller 2020 - Sandy Partridge 2021 - Art Gardner 2022 - Mike Anderson |
Learn about the national Cadillac & LaSalle Club
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Founded in 1958, the Cadillac & LaSalle Club was initially created to encourage enthusiasts to maintain, preserve, and restore collectible Cadillacs and LaSalles built from 1902-1942. Now the CLC recognizes all vehicles built by Cadillac. The CLC promotes the development, collection, publication and exchange of helpful information pertaining to our cars. They also promote social fellowship for club members. You can learn more about the founding and early history of the club in a PDF when you click here. To read more about the current organization, visit their website: http://www.cadillaclasalleclub.org/
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