Marysville car enthusiast recalls driving the famous and powerful

From Heraldville Net: Marysville car enthusiast recalls driving the famous and powerful
Barry Hilbert remembers driving cars in Everett's parades in the late 1970s.

He had the honor of driving Sen. Henry "Scoop" M. Jackson and his family, the star among the local dignitaries.

"Young people (today) don't know who Senator Jackson was," Hilbert said. "He was so key to this state, to the Navy base."

When he met Jackson, he was the most powerful senator in the world, Hilbert said.

His memories of those times came back again this summer, after his wife, Shirley, died in June. They were married 32 years. Hilbert is slowly pulling his life together.

Sorting through photographs, he asked if I would see that historical parade shots be shared with the community, to show a bit of how Everett matters to history.

Jackson's son, Peter, who was about 10 years old in the photographs, recalls motorcades down Colby Avenue.

"I remember sitting in Mr. Hilbert's 1959 T-Bird which felt like the stern of a mid-sized motor boat," Jackson said. "All I remember is that, as a result of multiple death threats, my dad wore an FBI-issue bulletproof vest."

His father told him, "They'll be aiming at me, so chances are you won't get hit."

As a result, Peter Jackson said he made a point of trying to scoot as far away from his father as possible during parades.

Hilbert still has his 1959 T-Bird.

It's one of his many classic automobiles that chauffeured celebrities and politicians, including Rep. Lloyd Meeds. Meeds served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1979. He represented the 2nd Congressional District.

In a story I wrote about Hilbert in 2006, he told me he was lost in 1959. He pines for the good old days, made easier by his museum-style Marysville home. There are old Philco TVs, Popular Science magazines from the 1940s and '50s, a movie projector and a Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon book.

The back bedroom is dedicated to a model Lionel railroad layout with teensy Breck shampoo billboards. I used Breck back when I had a ducktail haircut.

Hilbert's father, Faye Hilbert, was a World War II B-29 bomber pilot. He lived in Spokane and was a director of the Lilac Festival. One of Hilbert's photos shows singer Teresa Brewer ("Til I Waltz Again With You") riding, and smoking, in a Spokane parade.

Entertainer Julie Miller, who sang on the Lawrence Welk show, rode in a parade in 1975 in Everett. She rode in Barry Hilbert's friend's 1960 Continental Mark IV.

She gave Hilbert tickets to her concert that night in town.

Two of the cars Hilbert owns are King Midgets, kit cars known through advertisements in Popular Science magazines.

To see videos of cars Hilbert owns, visit the Vintage Vehicle Show by Lance Lambert. The video about the 1959 T-Bird is at http://tinyurl.com/3w25tow. There are three illuminating interviews on YouTube showing Hilbert's expansive knowledge about Kit Cars, his 1959 Continental Mark IV convertible, and the Ford.

Hilbert, who works at the Tulalip Casino in the upholstery department, drives a 1995 Ford Taurus station wagon day to day.

"I call it the silver slug," Hilbert said. "On nice days, I ride my bike to work."

When he drove Sen. Jackson in the T-Bird, the senator wanted to know everything about the car, Hilbert said. When the senator died, Barry and Shirley Hilbert quietly knocked on his widow's door in Everett.

"We wanted to leave a photo," he said. "Her secretary came to the door and said, 'Please come in'."

There was a table top covered with food.

"We saw Helen Jackson and her daughter," Hilbert said. He handed Helen Jackson the parade photograph of her husband.

She looked at the photograph and said that her husband looked like he owned the T-Bird.

"I'll never forget that," Hilbert said.