If you are well-heeled and would like to own a part of history you’ll get your chance next month when an historic 1963 Lincoln convertible hits the block at Bonhams’ American Presidential Experience Auction on October 14 in New York. It is expected to bring in between $300,000 and $500,000.
Everyone remembers the open Lincoln in which President John F. Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy were riding that fateful November 22, 1963 in Dallas when he was killed and Texas Governor John Connally was wounded. But not many are aware of the motorcade that took place earlier that day in Ft. Worth when the president, Mrs. Kennedy and Connally were driven from downtown to Carswell Air Force Base for their flight to Dallas.
A white Lincoln convertible loaned by Lincoln dealer Bill Golightly was used as an official vehicle to transport the three first to a breakfast event and then to the base. It was designated as “Limo One” during that sequence. It is this white convertible that will be auctioned in October.
Golightly sold the car to David Pelham, of Dallas, in 1964. Three years later, Pelham sold it to L.H. Hough for display in the Museum of American Tragedy. John Reznikoff bought it in 1998 and sold it for $318,000 at RR Auction’s “Camelot: 50 Years After Dallas” event in October 2013. The Lincoln is powered by the standard 430-cubic-inch V-8 engine.
Bonhams photos show a beautiful body and still elegant, but well worn interior, while a photo from the UTA Libraries special collections shows the car and its three famous occupants in the Ft. Worth motorcade.
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