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Bulletin Board Lone Star Packards June 20, 2026 Report - from Tommy Baccaro, Region Acting DirectorOn Saturday, June 20th LSP returned to the Ol' Railroad Cafe in the historic district of Rosenberg. This was our first visit since the fire put them out of business last year. We had 37 who sent us an RSVP but due to the weather, only 32 braved the forecast. The heavy rain did not hit until we were all safely inside having our meeting. I thought that was the worst but, on the way home through Alvin we went through tropical storm level sheets of rain and winds. It rained on us all the way back to our driveway in League City and still rained the rest of the day. (not as hard thankfully). Driving our Expedition through it was bad enough but I was sure glad we had decided not to bring a Packard! We were not alone in that decision because our very brave membership director, Stephen Morris, was the only one who braved the elements. His gorgeous '53 Mayfair is just as pretty wet. Ron and Patricia made arrangements with the restaurant. Jan and her daughter Liz, along with Patricia and Ron planned a patriotic theme and used their own red white & blue decor to decorate. Jan secured prizes for the patriotic game we played. We almost always have a prayer and pledge of allegiance, but this time we sang God Bless America! All of this was not only to honor our country's 250th anniversary but to honor our LSP veterans as well. Thanks, to all who participated. 50/50 DRAWING Tony held the 50/50 drawing for the $55 cash prize and Lynn Eanes was the lucky winner. Club proceeds from the 50/50 drawings help keep our dues lower than most car clubs. NEW MEMBERS We were happy to see David Timberlake make his first meeting. David lives in The Woodlands and owns a 1937 Packard Senior, but I don't remember the series. We did put him in touch with Bob Supina as he is our resident expert on the 1937 senior. It was great to see former member Barry Hackney as a guest of Ron and Patricia. One of LSP's early members, Barry decided to rejoin the club. After paying his dues, he was warmly welcomed back to LSP. We were pleased to see Andy Calistrat at this meeting. He indicated an interest to join and said he would try to bring his mom, Caroline, to a future meeting. Our member, Evelyn Timmins, was accompanied by her good friend, Lynda Varnell, who is a frequent guest. UPCOMING EVENTS Next month we will return to Willis to see the Bucher collection July 18. More details as we get closer. We will NOT meet in August as it will likely be in triple digit heat by then and most of our Packards are not air-conditioned. After some discussion, we agreed to meet in Galveston for our September 19 meeting. Dave and Sandra Lucas have been working with the Bryan Museum and Mario's Seawall restaurant to really make this a memorable event. More details to follow. Jay and Mary Matthews will host our club in Belleville in October. We have now scheduled meeting destinations for every month (except August) through December. You will find that list elsewhere in this publication. We look forward to seeing everyone in Willis, Texas on July 18th Lone Star Packards May 16, 2026 Report - from Tommy Baccaro, Region Acting Director Holy Cloisonné! What a great meeting we had Saturday at Evelyn’s home. We had 36 members RSVP, and I believe only two were unable to attend! A huge THANK YOU to Evelyn for graciously opening her home and car barn to us and treating everyone to a wonderful Mexican lunch catered by Luna’s, one of our favorite restaurants. During COVID, we visited Luna’s for takeout at least once a week — we’d call ahead and they would bring our order right out to the car! Following lunch, Maureen held the lucky ticket and won $50 in our 50/50 drawing. Next, Jan gave an informative presentation about an upcoming article in the Owner’s Manual featuring the famed Route 66. If you have memories or stories to share, please send them to Jan for possible inclusion in the article. Memorial Day and Veterans Jan also spoke about the importance of Memorial Day and asked for a show of hands from members who had served in the military. She shared several often-humorous stories about her 104-year-old uncle, a World War II veteran who even had the opportunity to meet President Trump once he turned 100. JUNE MEETING Following Jan's remarks, your director related that the Orr's had arranged for us to return to the Railroad Cafe in historic downtown Rosenberg on June 20, 2026. I have asked Chris to work on a location near downtown that he and I have discussed lately for the July meeting. TOUR OF TIMMINS CAR COLLECTION Following lunch and our meeting, Evelyn led us to the car barn. Over the years she and Tom put together a truly unique car collection consisting of historic vehicles from the teens up to 1934. As you might expect, a really good collection would have Auburns and Packards and this one does have beautiful examples of them. But it also has less known marquees such as the Trumbull that has a really unique history of its rise and demise. Mr. Trumbull developed a really nice car smaller than most cars on the American market. Unfortunately, it proved not to be practical for the many unpaved roads across the country in the pre-1920's. The problem was not its size but its tract. Many roads were unpaved and the horse drawn wagons and coaches still in use would make ruts in the road with the wider tract of their wheels. Other car manufacturers made cars that matched the width of those wagons so they could just roll through the ruts or even roll along in them. The Trumbull could not navigate those ruts successfully. I don't know the exact number, but he sold a few and then decided that England had more paved roads, so he loaded a significant number of them on the Lusitania (I have heard 40 but did not research that number). He was sure he could sell them in England and take orders for more. The rest is history. WW1 was beginning and the Germans torpedoed the Lusitania and Mr. Trumbull and his cars all went down with the ship. That was the end of the Trumbull car line. Unfortunate, because England always had a small car market and they may have been successful there. The Timmins' collection consists of 14 beautifully restored cars representing each price range in the automotive market. Tom restored each of these cars with Evelyn's assistance and they are truly magnificent. Since Tom's passing, she has maintained the collection in his honor, and we are so grateful that she has allowed us to visit from time to time. Eight of them were in the recent Keels and Wheels show in Seabrook last month and Evelyn was named the car collector of the year by the Keels and Wheels organization. Tom was a true gentleman and all who knew him miss him. I think Evelyn may consider letting some of them go now but she has several that are not on the list. I think the "no touch" list includes the Trumbull and both Packards but there may be more. MEMBERS CARS FOR SALE Speaking of available cars, Bill Anderson's '41 coupe, Lenny Holzband's '41 120 sedan, Sherry Hairrell's1940 160, and Juanita Jordan's '56 Caribbean are all available. John Lortz is waiting on some parts for Juanita's car, but it will be ready for sale soon. There maybe a few others that have slipped my mind. See you on Saturday, June 20 at the Ol' Railroad Cafe in Rosenberg. Happy Packarding, Tommy
The sun has set on the 30th Keels and Wheels Concours d' Elegance.I think the Baccaro family has entered all but three or four of the yearly shows. We have collected two Corinthian awards. one for our newly restored 1955 in one of the very early years and one for our 1947 Custom Clipper just last year. With various cars in our collection, we also have four of the silver cups given for second place. THE INTERESTING PEOPLE WE MET Having said that, getting trophy's is not the most important part of Keels and Wheels. We value being able to meet so many interesting people. One such man approached me Sunday morning. He said his grandfather was the Packard dealer in El Paso for many years. He has some memorabilia and pictures from the dealership he would like to share with us. He also said he has been keeping his eye open for a Packard belonging to one of our members that he would like to buy. Since the person is a friend of mine, he asked me if the owner was tired of the Packard yet. I told him I knew of no reason why he should be, but if I ever heard different, I would let him know. I told him I would add him to our mailing list. Another family came by to admire our 1954 Cavalier. It consisted of a young couple in their mid to late 20's and one of their mothers. The girl told us they were originally from California and her grandfather had been a Packard dealer in Santa Anna. He actually had several dealerships in the area and they were called Ackard Packard. I gave them all the information I could remember on our '54 but when I told her the original owner was a doctor in that area and the car was still there in 1972 when it was restored at Custom Auto in Santa Anna. Then they really got excited because there was a high probability that our Cavalier had been originally purchased at her grandfather's Packard dealership. They took pictures of the family by the car and they took pictures of the car by itself to share with other family members. We were really very happy to have made the day one to remember for this family. FOUND A NEW MEMBER Another really great thing happened. We discovered that the couple showing the black 1947 Custom Clipper lives in Kingwood. They were most happy to discover there was a Packard club in Houston as they had only moved here a year ago from out of state. Stephen got an application to them and they quickly filled it out and gave me their dues. Please welcome Fred and Taffy Elchlepp to our club. They are a nice couple and I think they will fit in nicely with our Packard family. AWARD FOR EVELYN TIMMINS Evelyn Timmins got a special award for her years of service to the Keels and Wheels show and she was also named the Collector of the Year. She displayed 8 cars this year and of course our favorite is the 1920 Packard Twin Six. It was placed prominently near the entrance where all could see. OUR CLUB WINNERS THIS YEAR Stephen and Lyn Morris received a second in postwar class award for their 1949 Custom. It is well deserved. First place went to a red and white '54 Caribbean that was entered in the post war Packard class. Members James and Eileen Bartlett did not bring a Packard but they did win with their Huppmobile. Beautiful as are all of their cars! MAY LSP MEETING Speaking of Evelyn, she has kindly invited us to have our May 16th meeting in her car barn in Friendswood. If you have not seen the collection she and Tom, put together, you really need to try and make this meeting as she may be selling some in the future. She will provide a catered lunch in the barn. For June, the Orr's will arrange for us to meet in the Richmond/Rosenberg area. If the private room of the Old Railroad Cafe is ready, we will meet there. If not, a suitable alternative will be found. The cafe is open following repairs from the fire but the private room is still being worked on. Happy Packarding, Tommy 47th Annual Texas Packard Meet, Salado Texas April 9 - 11, 2026 Report - from Tommy Baccaro, Region
Acting Director 47th Annual Texas Packard Meet is now in the rear-view mirror Despite all the ominous weather forecasts for the weekend, the weather conditions held up beautifully – at least until Sunday morning when we were headed home. We had 87 attendees at the banquet and 22 Packards in the parking lot, though 27 had been registered. Forecasts had consistently predicted heavy rain, between 60 and 90 percent for the weekend. While we still enjoyed a strong turnout of people, those predictions clearly affected how many cars made it to the Holiday Inn grounds. As expected, the rain finally arrived Sunday morning, and depending on your route, the drive home was a very wet one. Years ago, we installed two speed electric wipers to our '55 Clipper- this trip proved just how worthwhile that upgrade was and how much we appreciated them! HEART OF TEXAS As in years past, the Heart of Texas Region kicked things off Thursday evening with Packard Bingo, along with prizes, ice cream and cookies. Many thanks to Princess Miller and her team for another fun and welcoming gathering. EARLY BIRD TOUR Friday morning’s “Early Bird Tour” organized by Gordon Logan was outstanding and he really outdid himself this year! This year's destination was Lampasas. The route through the countryside was a winding road through some really scenic areas including large hills (this coastal native considered some of them closer to small mountains than hills!) One unexpected steep decent followed by a sharp climb caused me to cross my fingers that our "treadle vac power brake " wouldn't fail and fortunately it did not. Lampasas is the home of the Ford Museum located in a late 1800 building that housed the second Ford dealer granted a franchise in the state of Texas. It was just 4 months behind the first to get a Texas franchise located in Houston. In those early days, Model T Fords were shipped by train in partially assembled form and the dealership was located near the tracks. Therefore, there was a room set aside for final assembly (1913). We were treated to a guided tour of the facility including the show room, shop, and the assembly room. The museum houses a number of remarkable vehicles, and we enjoyed the curator's presentation that explained what was special with each of the cars. This museum is well-worth a trip to Lampasas. Seventeen Packards participated in the tour. EVENING AT BARROW BREWEY Friday at 5:30 we paraded out of the Hotel parking lot escorted by three Salado Police Cars heading to the Barrow Brewery. Once there, we parked along the grassy area next to the Salado Creek near the Brewery. Our display drew plenty of attention from locals to see our cars and the cars were easily visible to those passing over the bridge, Last year it was too wet to park on the grass so we had to stay on the pavement. Friday it was all dry and a perfect place to show cars. After the cars were parked, we were entertained by a band at the brewery, and we had the choice of walking to several nearby restaurants or visiting one of the food trucks serving at the brewery. SATURDAY CAR SHOW AND SWAP MEET On Friday night, there was a light shower, so we had to wipe down our cars before the annual Saturday show and display. Fortunately, the grassy area at the hotel was dry enough that we could still have our swap meet. In addition to the members voting for their favorite cars, more locals came out to look at the Packards. Unfortunately, due to the forecast, our Saturday morning food truck failed to show. That did present a problem, so we will do our best to have that covered during the show next year. DIRECTORS MEETING As usual, the 4 directors plus chair emeritus, Beverly Clark Teel met during the morning show to discuss matters dealing with this meet and the 2027 meet. We were privileged to have Steve Christy and Christipher Slater present. Both are vice presidents of PAC. Steve discussed up-coming national meets plus they clarified some matters for us. We agreed that Chris Stathopulo would research the possibility of online registration for the meet and report back to the other directors by conference call or maybe Zoom. We also decided that at least for next year, the dinner price would be underwritten from the meet treasury. The price per meal will be capped at $25 and the balance paid from the meet treasury. We also acknowledged we will need a new meet registrar for 2027. I asked that there be a box on the application form that asks if you are going to drive a Packard on the Friday tour and how many passengers you anticipate will be coming. This info is needed by Gordon as he plans our yearly tour and all agreed to add it to the form. We discussed our agreements with the Holiday Inn and agreed to make no changes. We stressed that the last day the hotel will guarantee rooms can be added to our block needs to be published and emphasized. After that date, they will sell rooms to first come first served. We agreed to stress that date to members so they don't wait too late to make reservations. With the 72-hour cancellation policy, there is no need to wait so late to get lodging. TECHNICAL MEETING Terry Weiss as is tradition gave another educational and sometime humorous session on maintaining our Packards. Special emphasis was on electrical systems, some lubrication issues, and the scarcity of good quality ignition points. Terry has a wealth of knowledge and we really appreciate him sharing it with us each year. NATIONAL PACKARD MUSEUM Following Terry's program, Mary Ann Porinchak and Charles Ohlin from the National Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio took over. Mary Ann discussed building plans and the need to expand in order to adequately store and maintain Packards donated to the museum. Charles read letters and various documents from the teen years of Packard detailing what customers actually thought of their automobiles and some of the factory communications between principals of the company spoke to the level of quality they were seeking to attain and maintain. Very interesting! SATURDAY EVENING BANQUET The Saturday awards banquet was another success as 87 guests were treated to some of the best BBQ Texas has to offer thanks to Johnny's BBQ and Steaks. Your director had a few opening remarks and shared some history of the meet. We asked our own Stephen Morris to lead us in a prayer. The first guest we recognized was Salado Mayor Pro- Tem, Zach Hurst who welcomed us and thanked us for continuing to make Salado our home base. We then introduced guests from the National Club and Steve spoke briefly as well as Mary Ann, the director of the National Packard Museum. AWARDS BY NORTH TEXAS REGION Following the introductory program we had our meal. Once everyone had finished eating, the North Texas Region took over by presenting the awards. Many of the 30 plus LSP members present got awards. Thanks to Chris Stathopulo and Mark Wilson for again creating the slide show featuring the winners and every car in the meet. Sunday morning, we finally got the rain the weather people said was coming, but thankfully it held off until our meet had concluded. We all said goodbye and see you next year, April 1-4, 2027. Tommy
On Sunday, 3/22/26, Twenty-five members of LSP met at Skeeters Grill in Kingwood. Thanks to John Lortz for finding us a new place to meet on the north side of our membership area. John was also the lucky one who won the monthly 50/50 drawing. LSP FINANCES Many thanks to Tony and Shirley for taking care of this drawing each month as it helps us keep a healthy balance of funds for a club our size. When possible, we use those funds to subsidize some of our special events such as the Christmas dinner or sometimes the admission to certain venues we visit. We also use our funds to make periodic donations to the Packard Proving Grounds Museum and sometimes the Packard Museum. Of course, we also use the funds to pay for remembrances when one of our members passes away. The 50/50 drawings help make it possible for our dues to be so low plus they are a lot of fun! MEMBER UPDATE We relayed to our members that Jay reported he has recovered more than 90% so far from the stroke he suffered last month. He is planning on being in Salado for the TPM but not sure what he is bringing. Also, we reported that Karen Trokey has moved from Katy in order to be closer to her daughter and family in Montgomery County. NO LSP MEETING IN APRIL In other
news, we announced there would be no LSP meeting in April because
most of our active members will attend in Salado and then near the
end of the month many of us will be participating in Keels and Wheels
at the Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook. We are considering meeting
places for the month of May. OTHER CLUB MEETS Jill Burtchaell announced that the National Studebaker meet will be held in Waxahachie September 23 through 26. Packards built in South Bend are eligible to attend and compete in their own class. We currently have at least five South Bend Packards in our club so this might be an opportunity to see a lot of cars you don't normally see without having to drive across the country. For more info, contact Ray Chartain at 817 919 6558 or chartrain@gmail.com. I announced it has been an honor and pleasure to serve as one of the at large trustees for Packard Automobile Classics for two terms. However, I did decline to run for a third term as I think maybe someone younger who might be able to attend. more of the board meetings in person would be a good thing. Lone Star Packards Febuary 21, 2026 Report - from Tommy Baccaro, Region Acting Director Our February meeting was a great success! Thanks to Stephen and Lynn for setting up a joint meeting with our friends from the Gulf Coast Region of AACA. We have had several meetings with them over the years with the last one being when we toured the Lone Star Flight Museum at Ellington Field. This time, we met at the Spanish Flowers Restaurant on I 45 North and then drove the short distance to the National Museum of Funeral History. The National Museum of Funeral History is one of the best museums you will ever see! They had actual artifacts from the funeral of presidents, popes, entertainers and examples of all kinds of related equipment. Our docent gave the stories behind many of the exhibits. Did you know that only one hearse ever carried the bodies of more than one president to his burial site? The same hearse that carried President Reagan also carried President Ford. The commercial or service car collection alone was worth the visit! We had 21 members and friends of LSP present and about the same number of AACA members. We have probably a half dozen families who are members of both clubs, so it is possible a couple may have been counted present for both clubs. FOUR PACKARDS MADE IT TO THE MEETING We want to thank the Darrow’s for bringing their sharp 1957 Clipper. John Lortz for bringing the beautiful 1956 400, former member Barry Hackney for bringing the sporty 1958 Packard Hawk and special recognition to the Dentler's for bringing their 1956 Caribbean all the way from La Rue, Texas which is close to Tyler. They deserve the long- distance award. We were unable to bring one this time which I was regretting until we started home. On the way to the meeting, we observed that the east bound side of the Sam Houston Tollway was cut down to one lane for miles before the I 59 cut off. So, coming back we decided to go straight down I 45 towards town and get off on either 610 or I -10. However, before we could get that far we ran into construction sites on our side of the freeway and we went at a slow pace for (it seemed like) miles. An older car might very well have over heated! It is getting very difficult to avoid such situations in an antique car when traveling from one side of the nation's 4th largest city to the other. In land mass, I think we are either the largest or pretty close to the largest in the country. We frequently take a longer, less traveled, route to avoid the congestion. At our portion of the meeting, I relayed that Jay Matthews had a stroke earlier in the week. Doctors predicted a full recovery and he went home on Friday. We all wish him a quick recovery! I failed to mention that Tony had sent a donation to the Packard Proving Grounds Museum in honor of the late Reed Simpson. We also discussed whether to meet in March or not and the decision was "yes". We will be coming upwith something soon preferably further north or the western regions of our membership area. SALADO We also reminded members they need to call the Salado Holiday Inn directly to get the Packard rate for the 47th Annual TPM. YOU CANNOT CALL THE NATIONAL RESERVATION LINE AND GET THE SPECIAL RATE. Also, it is time to send in your meet registration to our meet registrar. All that information is on the application MEMBERSHIP UPDATE We are asking Stephen to hold up on the roster until everyone who wishes to remain in our LSP club has paid their dues for 2026. March 8th is the cutoff date so please send Tony your $10. Note, we do have several people who are on the mailing list as a courtesy because they are leaders of other clubs, they may be classic car influencers or maybe editors or blog people. Sometimes we include someone for a while if we know they own a Packard and we want them to see who we are and what we do before they join. The deadline does not include those people. It also does not include our honorary members who are survivors of deceased LSP members. All others, please pay your $10 dues soon. We will start working on the March.
Lone Star Packards January 17, 2026 Report - from Tommy Baccaro, Region Acting Director On Saturday the 17th, 28 members of LSP gathered at the San Jacinto Monument and Museum on the grounds of the Battle of San Jacinto. It was a cold and really windy day so only 2 Packards were present. Stephen and Lyn's '49 Custom and our '54 Cavalier represented us well. Both drew a lot of on lookers and Stephen and I answered a lot of questions regarding them. DAVID McDONALD PARTICIPATION AWARD 2025 Stephen won the David McDonald Participation award for 2025. This award is named after the late former director David McDonald who always brought his '49 Packard fast back to almost every meeting year after year. David's car is now owned by David Miller and wife Princess in the Heart of Texas region. Congratulations to Stephen as he was also recently elected as President of the Gulf Coast AACA We arrived late as we got behind two escorted wide loads on Hwy 146 and someone forgot to measure the narrow lanes due to construction between Seabrook and LaPorte. It took us about 40 minutes to get through the mess in our '54. I think the traffic gods have it in for me when I drive a Packard somewhere! FEBRUARY 21ST MEETING Our next meeting will be February 21st at the National Funeral Service Museum in Spring. I think this will be our 3rd club visit, but the last one was well over 10 years ago. This is one of the most interesting museums you will ever visit and the professional car exhibit alone is worth the trip. The "star car" is the 1916 Packard Funeral Bus. This will be a joint meet with our friends from AACA also joining in the fun. Stephen is working out the details and more info including the restaurant will follow. UPCOMING MEETING IDEAS Several people made recommendations for future meetings. The Dentlers suggested we go to Huntsville sometime. We have done that in the past, but it has been a long time. Some points of interest would include the Sam Houston Museum, Sam Houston's grave site as well as his two homes, the State Prison Museum, various antique shops around the square, as well as the visitors' center at Sam Houston State. Juanita Jordan suggested we again visit the Brookwood Community in Brookshire. We have done that in the past but, it has been many years. Tommy thought we could also return to the George Bush library and museum in College Station which has added more exhibits since we went there years ago. Plus George and Barbara have since passed and we could visit their grave site. Dave and Sandra Lucas suggested we travel to the Bryan Museum in Galveston as we have not been there in a long time and then go to their home in Alvin on the way home. We also could make another visit to St Arnold's Brewery on the outskirts of downtown Houston. We mentioned that April is the Salado month and also Keels and Wheels. That leaves March, May and June to be filled in the near future. We like to have the March meeting earlier than the third weekend to not interfere with Salado preparations. More to follow on all of the above. LONG DISTANCE RECOGNITION The long-distance congrats and recognition again went to the Dentlers who drove all the way from the Dallas area to be with us. That is a four-hour drive (5 hours in this case) and we not only appreciate their company, but we appreciate the distance they travel to join us. Second place goes to David Richard's family who drove from the Beaumont area. We appreciate their effort as well! We went to the Pappas BBQ for lunch after our visit to the museum. We chose the Pappas location which was off the Sam Houston tollway in nearby Pasadena. The food was great and there was plenty of room for all of us to sit together. We were still able to conduct a short meeting to recognize birthdays and to speak about coming activities. Thanks to Chris for recommending this restaurant.
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