************************
Courier-Journal---April 27, 2004
(By Bob Hill)
Unique style marks final journey for tractor fan
Promises matter. Deathbed promises carry weight well beyond that. So when Oldham County tobacco farmer Terry Clubb began talking to family and friends about his funeral procession, he made it clear that farm tractors had to be part of the final deal.
Clubb had never met a tractor he didn't like. A big, gregarious man with a full-blown Santa Claus beard, he was forever on his way to his next farm auction, tractor pull, swap meet or agribusiness deal.
The owner of a one-truck trucking business, he'd haul one vintage tractor to Georgia and bring home two more from North Carolina. He was active in a half-dozen tractor pulling and tractor preservation groups.
Some of that came with his turf. He'd grown up on a tobacco farm near La Grange. He'd been working on equipment since he could heft a box wrench. The rest was innate; he was buying and selling tractors in his early teens; he had a phenomenal memory for facts, figures and model numbers; John Deere, Oliver, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline or Massey Ferguson.
"He had a network of friends all over the country," said Lloyd Wheeler, a friend. "He was just one of those guys who was always talking to everybody all the time."
The news that Clubb, 48, had developed esophageal cancer spread quickly among his friends. His death in late March just three weeks after the cancer was fully diagnosed was a shock.
CLUBB KNEW he was dying. He and his nephew, Johnny Sibley, had talked about - and finally planned - his ride to the cemetery.
Clubb had one request. When attending the funerals of others, he had always insisted on riding up front with the driver of whatever vehicle was bearing the deceased. This seemed unlikely for his own funeral.
"If I can't be up front," Clubb told Sibley, "then pitch me up on a farm wagon and carry me to the cemetery that way."
Clubb wanted the wagon pulled by his favorite tractor, a monster John Deere 4520 with a V-8 Detroit Diesel engine installed for tractor pulls.
The old tractor hadn't been run for years. Sibley had hoped he'd have several months to work on the 35-year-old tractor - and pull together other elements of the funeral procession. Clubb's sudden death rushed his plans. Sibley - and others - had to work on the tractor four or five hours just to get it started.
They did it. Clubb's body was carried in a gleaming wooden casket from the Heady-Radcliffe Funeral Home in La Grange on April 2. The pallbearers carried the casket to the edge of the wagon, where strong hands helped place it.
THE CASKET was surrounded by toy, push-pedal metal tractors Clubb's friends had resurrected for the occasion. Bales of tobacco had been set on the wagon. Part of its bed was covered in cloth decorated in tractors.
Pulled by the 1983 Ford truck Clubb had used to haul his tractors, the farm-wagon funeral procession slowly made its way along twisting blacktop farm roads and through New Castle toward the family cemetery at Pleasureville - almost 25 miles away.
In Pleasureville, the procession stopped. The Ford truck was unhitched from the wagon and replaced by the John Deere 4520. Other members of the procession left their cars and walked behind buildings where almost 40 antique tractors - and one street rod - had been parked earlier.
The final leg of Clubb's funeral procession was a grand and roaring parade of vintage tractors - John Deere, Oliver, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline and Massey Ferguson among them.
The parade went through the heart of Pleasureville. It made its way to the cemetery, where the old tractors were lined up in military rows as Clubb's casket was carried from the wagon toward his grave. The rest was prayers, a few moments of silence and answered promises.
************************
Courier-Journal---April 27, 2004
(By Bob Hill)
Unique style marks final journey for tractor fan
Promises matter. Deathbed promises carry weight well beyond that. So when Oldham County tobacco farmer Terry Clubb began talking to family and friends about his funeral procession, he made it clear that farm tractors had to be part of the final deal.
Clubb had never met a tractor he didn't like. A big, gregarious man with a full-blown Santa Claus beard, he was forever on his way to his next farm auction, tractor pull, swap meet or agribusiness deal.
The owner of a one-truck trucking business, he'd haul one vintage tractor to Georgia and bring home two more from North Carolina. He was active in a half-dozen tractor pulling and tractor preservation groups.
Some of that came with his turf. He'd grown up on a tobacco farm near La Grange. He'd been working on equipment since he could heft a box wrench. The rest was innate; he was buying and selling tractors in his early teens; he had a phenomenal memory for facts, figures and model numbers; John Deere, Oliver, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline or Massey Ferguson.
"He had a network of friends all over the country," said Lloyd Wheeler, a friend. "He was just one of those guys who was always talking to everybody all the time."
The news that Clubb, 48, had developed esophageal cancer spread quickly among his friends. His death in late March just three weeks after the cancer was fully diagnosed was a shock.
CLUBB KNEW he was dying. He and his nephew, Johnny Sibley, had talked about - and finally planned - his ride to the cemetery.
Clubb had one request. When attending the funerals of others, he had always insisted on riding up front with the driver of whatever vehicle was bearing the deceased. This seemed unlikely for his own funeral.
"If I can't be up front," Clubb told Sibley, "then pitch me up on a farm wagon and carry me to the cemetery that way."
Clubb wanted the wagon pulled by his favorite tractor, a monster John Deere 4520 with a V-8 Detroit Diesel engine installed for tractor pulls.
The old tractor hadn't been run for years. Sibley had hoped he'd have several months to work on the 35-year-old tractor - and pull together other elements of the funeral procession. Clubb's sudden death rushed his plans. Sibley - and others - had to work on the tractor four or five hours just to get it started.
They did it. Clubb's body was carried in a gleaming wooden casket from the Heady-Radcliffe Funeral Home in La Grange on April 2. The pallbearers carried the casket to the edge of the wagon, where strong hands helped place it.
THE CASKET was surrounded by toy, push-pedal metal tractors Clubb's friends had resurrected for the occasion. Bales of tobacco had been set on the wagon. Part of its bed was covered in cloth decorated in tractors.
Pulled by the 1983 Ford truck Clubb had used to haul his tractors, the farm-wagon funeral procession slowly made its way along twisting blacktop farm roads and through New Castle toward the family cemetery at Pleasureville - almost 25 miles away.
In Pleasureville, the procession stopped. The Ford truck was unhitched from the wagon and replaced by the John Deere 4520. Other members of the procession left their cars and walked behind buildings where almost 40 antique tractors - and one street rod - had been parked earlier.
The final leg of Clubb's funeral procession was a grand and roaring parade of vintage tractors - John Deere, Oliver, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline and Massey Ferguson among them.
The parade went through the heart of Pleasureville. It made its way to the cemetery, where the old tractors were lined up in military rows as Clubb's casket was carried from the wagon toward his grave. The rest was prayers, a few moments of silence and answered promises.
************************
************************
Courier-Journal---April 27, 2004
(By Bob Hill)
Unique style marks final journey for tractor fan
Promises matter. Deathbed promises carry weight well beyond that. So when Oldham County tobacco farmer Terry Clubb began talking to family and friends about his funeral procession, he made it clear that farm tractors had to be part of the final deal.
Clubb had never met a tractor he didn't like. A big, gregarious man with a full-blown Santa Claus beard, he was forever on his way to his next farm auction, tractor pull, swap meet or agribusiness deal.
The owner of a one-truck trucking business, he'd haul one vintage tractor to Georgia and bring home two more from North Carolina. He was active in a half-dozen tractor pulling and tractor preservation groups.
Some of that came with his turf. He'd grown up on a tobacco farm near La Grange. He'd been working on equipment since he could heft a box wrench. The rest was innate; he was buying and selling tractors in his early teens; he had a phenomenal memory for facts, figures and model numbers; John Deere, Oliver, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline or Massey Ferguson.
"He had a network of friends all over the country," said Lloyd Wheeler, a friend. "He was just one of those guys who was always talking to everybody all the time."
The news that Clubb, 48, had developed esophageal cancer spread quickly among his friends. His death in late March just three weeks after the cancer was fully diagnosed was a shock.
CLUBB KNEW he was dying. He and his nephew, Johnny Sibley, had talked about - and finally planned - his ride to the cemetery.
Clubb had one request. When attending the funerals of others, he had always insisted on riding up front with the driver of whatever vehicle was bearing the deceased. This seemed unlikely for his own funeral.
"If I can't be up front," Clubb told Sibley, "then pitch me up on a farm wagon and carry me to the cemetery that way."
Clubb wanted the wagon pulled by his favorite tractor, a monster John Deere 4520 with a V-8 Detroit Diesel engine installed for tractor pulls.
The old tractor hadn't been run for years. Sibley had hoped he'd have several months to work on the 35-year-old tractor - and pull together other elements of the funeral procession. Clubb's sudden death rushed his plans. Sibley - and others - had to work on the tractor four or five hours just to get it started.
They did it. Clubb's body was carried in a gleaming wooden casket from the Heady-Radcliffe Funeral Home in La Grange on April 2. The pallbearers carried the casket to the edge of the wagon, where strong hands helped place it.
THE CASKET was surrounded by toy, push-pedal metal tractors Clubb's friends had resurrected for the occasion. Bales of tobacco had been set on the wagon. Part of its bed was covered in cloth decorated in tractors.
Pulled by the 1983 Ford truck Clubb had used to haul his tractors, the farm-wagon funeral procession slowly made its way along twisting blacktop farm roads and through New Castle toward the family cemetery at Pleasureville - almost 25 miles away.
In Pleasureville, the procession stopped. The Ford truck was unhitched from the wagon and replaced by the John Deere 4520. Other members of the procession left their cars and walked behind buildings where almost 40 antique tractors - and one street rod - had been parked earlier.
The final leg of Clubb's funeral procession was a grand and roaring parade of vintage tractors - John Deere, Oliver, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline and Massey Ferguson among them.
The parade went through the heart of Pleasureville. It made its way to the cemetery, where the old tractors were lined up in military rows as Clubb's casket was carried from the wagon toward his grave. The rest was prayers, a few moments of silence and answered promises.
************************
Courier-Journal---April 27, 2004
(By Bob Hill)
Unique style marks final journey for tractor fan
Promises matter. Deathbed promises carry weight well beyond that. So when Oldham County tobacco farmer Terry Clubb began talking to family and friends about his funeral procession, he made it clear that farm tractors had to be part of the final deal.
Clubb had never met a tractor he didn't like. A big, gregarious man with a full-blown Santa Claus beard, he was forever on his way to his next farm auction, tractor pull, swap meet or agribusiness deal.
The owner of a one-truck trucking business, he'd haul one vintage tractor to Georgia and bring home two more from North Carolina. He was active in a half-dozen tractor pulling and tractor preservation groups.
Some of that came with his turf. He'd grown up on a tobacco farm near La Grange. He'd been working on equipment since he could heft a box wrench. The rest was innate; he was buying and selling tractors in his early teens; he had a phenomenal memory for facts, figures and model numbers; John Deere, Oliver, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline or Massey Ferguson.
"He had a network of friends all over the country," said Lloyd Wheeler, a friend. "He was just one of those guys who was always talking to everybody all the time."
The news that Clubb, 48, had developed esophageal cancer spread quickly among his friends. His death in late March just three weeks after the cancer was fully diagnosed was a shock.
CLUBB KNEW he was dying. He and his nephew, Johnny Sibley, had talked about - and finally planned - his ride to the cemetery.
Clubb had one request. When attending the funerals of others, he had always insisted on riding up front with the driver of whatever vehicle was bearing the deceased. This seemed unlikely for his own funeral.
"If I can't be up front," Clubb told Sibley, "then pitch me up on a farm wagon and carry me to the cemetery that way."
Clubb wanted the wagon pulled by his favorite tractor, a monster John Deere 4520 with a V-8 Detroit Diesel engine installed for tractor pulls.
The old tractor hadn't been run for years. Sibley had hoped he'd have several months to work on the 35-year-old tractor - and pull together other elements of the funeral procession. Clubb's sudden death rushed his plans. Sibley - and others - had to work on the tractor four or five hours just to get it started.
They did it. Clubb's body was carried in a gleaming wooden casket from the Heady-Radcliffe Funeral Home in La Grange on April 2. The pallbearers carried the casket to the edge of the wagon, where strong hands helped place it.
THE CASKET was surrounded by toy, push-pedal metal tractors Clubb's friends had resurrected for the occasion. Bales of tobacco had been set on the wagon. Part of its bed was covered in cloth decorated in tractors.
Pulled by the 1983 Ford truck Clubb had used to haul his tractors, the farm-wagon funeral procession slowly made its way along twisting blacktop farm roads and through New Castle toward the family cemetery at Pleasureville - almost 25 miles away.
In Pleasureville, the procession stopped. The Ford truck was unhitched from the wagon and replaced by the John Deere 4520. Other members of the procession left their cars and walked behind buildings where almost 40 antique tractors - and one street rod - had been parked earlier.
The final leg of Clubb's funeral procession was a grand and roaring parade of vintage tractors - John Deere, Oliver, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline and Massey Ferguson among them.
The parade went through the heart of Pleasureville. It made its way to the cemetery, where the old tractors were lined up in military rows as Clubb's casket was carried from the wagon toward his grave. The rest was prayers, a few moments of silence and answered promises.
************************
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
