'The story will live on, and that would make him happy'

ST. MICHAELS — Since 2018, the Classic Motor Museum of St. Michaels has held a special place in John Horner and his family’s hearts.

It’s the place where Horner gifted his father a fully-restored 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.

Six years later, the museum has become even more important to the Horner family. In it lies a piece of the now late John Horner Sr.’s heart.

Technically, the car the Horners donated to the museum on Aug. 3 was John Sr.’s second 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.

“It was the first thing he bought himself,” John Jr. said about his father’s first Bel Air. “He spent $2,345 on it back when he was 17 years old. Not long after that, he met my mother and the rest of his life was dedicated to supporting my mother and then my two sisters and I.”

John Jr.’s sister, Katie Yienger, said the Bel Air was the car their dad had when he started dating their mom, Mary.

“And eventually, as much as he loved it, he sold it for something that was more family-friendly, I guess,” she said. “And that was just because family was always first to him.”

But John Sr. never forgot about the vehicle.

“He had told stories about this car forever and ever and ever, so my wife let me and a very good friend of mine, Dave Choquette, go looking for it,” John Jr. said.

A nation-wide search eventually led them to a fully-restored 1957 Bel Air in Virginia.

On a late Sunday morning in April of 2018, John Jr. brought his father, along with other family members, to the museum to look at cars. According to previous Star Democrat reporting, John Sr. was immediately drawn to the black 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air with red interior.

Little did he know — the car, which looked exactly like his beloved first car — was his. The younger John gifted his father with the car.

A NEW HOMEJohn Sr. was able to spend “a good six years” with the Chevy before he died in May, John Jr. said.

In those six years owning a Bel Air (again), John Sr. would take it out for rides or take Mary out to dinner in it. When the weather was bad, he would go into the garage, start the car up and just sit in it, John Jr. said.

John Sr. would also take it to car shows, where he would talk with others about the car and sometimes win trophies.

When John Sr. died, John Jr. and his family had to make a decision: What would they do with the car?

“If it goes to the museum, everyone gets to enjoy it,” John Jr. said. “They get to see the story and the history of it, how it ended up in the museum and all the pictures and newspaper articles.”

Yienger said that if a family member had kept the car, they wouldn’t have treasured it the same way their dad did.

“And so we wanted it to be in a place where people who treasure those cars and those memories could enjoy it like my dad,” she said.

Tad duPont, the museum’s board president, said the car — which he called “reasonably rare” due to its condition — is “huge” for the museum’s collection because before the donation was made, the museum didn’t own any cars from the 1950s.

In donating the car to the museum at the museum’s Cars and Coffee event on Aug. 3, John Jr. gave permission for the museum to show and use the car.

“We can use it, we can take it to parades, we can take it to rallies,” duPont said. “And that’s the best kind of gift to have.”

John Jr. said he thinks his father would appreciate that the car has been donated to the museum where he was surprised with it.

“The car will live on, and the story will live on, and that would make him happy,” John Jr. said.

He feels extra sure of this after his experience driving the car to be donated. John Jr. explained that often the car takes a little while to start, but on Aug. 3, it started up right away. He said the car got him some waves, thumbs ups and flashing headlights on the drive over.

“That was a sure sign that he was very happy about where it was going to be, and (he was) making sure that the car was showing itself off while we were donating it to the museum,” John Jr. said.

A FAMILY MANBoth John Jr. and Yienger describe their father as a family man. His wife, children and grandchildren always came first.

“He was the quiet one who never wanted to be in the pictures or front-and-center,” John Jr. said.

Yienger said her father was someone for everyone to admire.

“The love he shared and it being family first, it was the center of our growing up,” she said. “And it makes his loss hugely painful because it is leaving a huge hole. But we know it wouldn’t be so painful if we didn’t love him and he didn’t love us so much.”

That love is very evident, John Jr. said, in the fact that John Sr. and Mary put all three of their children through four years at Johns Hopkins University “with very honest means.” Because the siblings are each a year a part, there were two years where all three kids were in college at the same time.

”And I think that that is truly not something they had to do,” John Jr. said. “I left without any college loans because they took care of everything, and I still don’t know how they worked all that magic.”

Yienger said that keeping her father’s car in the museum is a way that the family can continue to connect with him.

“It just keeps my dad alive in a little way,” she said. “In a tangible way in a place where it’s not just a gravestone, it’s (somewhere) we can go, we can touch and we can see his picture and have a very, very tangible, physical way of remembering him and remembering what a gift he was to our family.”