How he rolled: Grady the car nut

Grady in his beloved Willys Jeepster

"No one who knew him will forget the late Grady Myers," writes columnist Tim Woodward. "He was an imposing figure: 6-foot-4 with merry blue eyes, strawberry blond hair and a Yosemite Sam mustache. He was, among other things, a combat veteran, a gifted artist and a collector of preposterous vehicles, from British Morgans to an ancient, hulking Imperial."

I'm sure far more people knew about Grady's passion for cars than knew about his Purple Heart. As readers of "Boocoo Dinky Dow: My short, crazy Vietnam War" will recall, he bought a white 1955 Thunderbird while he was still recovering at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital. He called it "a respectable little sports car." His next car love affair was with a 1965 Morgan 4/4.  His hobby went like this: He'd buy a vehicle in need of rehabilitation; expend countless garage hours, dollars and swear words restoring it; glow with pride and show it off at car shows; then sell it and buy something else.

Grady had a bumper sticker that said "All parts falling off this vehicle are genuine British made." But it wasn't the country of origin that lured him as much as the desire to drive something unusual and story-worthy. One of the most peculiar, fun and impractical was a three-wheeled Morgan. His final cars included a '63 Sunbeam Alpine, a Morris Minor from the '50s and a 1948 Plymouth business coupe. The big guy actually fit in those last two, as he fit in the bright yellow Jeepster he owned in the early '80s.

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The wife and kids pose in Grady's Morgan three-wheeler. Julie, Megan and Jake in 1983.

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