Dec 28, 2006 By Amanda Clegg 2 min read

A hearse that will be part of the procession taking President Gerald Ford to his final resting place began its journey Wednesday in Uniontown Conaway Hearses and Limousine Sales in Uniontown ended up with the hearse designed for the 38th president because of a fluke, the Conaway family said.

Dick Conaway and his children, Debbie and Rick, run the 43-year-old business, which sells hearses throughout the United States.

The local company is a distributor for S&S Coach Co., which had a 2006 model hearse built for the president while he was ill, but when the former president seemed to be recovering, the company sold the hearse to Conaway Hearses and Limousines, which, in turn, sold the vehicle to Stewart Enterprises.

“It is a small market,” Rick Conaway said of the hearse business. “But, to be honest, it’s a fluke.”

Conaway Hearses and Limousine Sales covers Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware and parts of Kentucky and Virginia. Rick Conaway said only 33 people in the world “do what we do.”

Debbie Conaway said the hearse was to be trucked to Grand Rapids, Mich., last night.

She said her family’s business was getting ready to ship the vehicle to Stewart Enterprises next week when the president passed on Tuesday.

“The car went to our best customer,” Rick Conaway said, adding that when Kemp Settle, fleet manager of Stewart Enterprises, heard the news of the president’s passing, he called the Conaway family to tell them he would lend the vehicle back for the president’s funeral.

“We were saddened to hear of President Ford’s passing,” Settle said. “As a service to his family and in his honor, we wanted to lend it back.”

Debbie Conaway said that during diplomatic funerals two hearses are used in the procession, one as a backup vehicle.

Settle said the vehicle being shipped from Uniontown will be used as the backup vehicle and will be returned to his company.