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Cars

'My Suzie's come home to me'

That was Jane Segal's first thought when she saw a double of her beloved first car.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published June 24, 2005

WESTCHASE - Jane Livingston was barely into her 20s, working in Manhattan at Seventeen magazine, when she met the love of her life.

It was a brand-new 1954 Chevrolet BelAir convertible, blue with a black top. She named it Suzie.

She was meticulous, almost obsessive, about caring for Suzie. If she went out with friends for the evening, she'd often work late into the night vacuuming Suzie's carpet and cleaning the upholstery, just to make sure no dust or dirt would find a home there.

She had picked it out with the help of a friend named Bob Segal, a neighborhood kid who had always been into cars. A few years later, Bob and Jane fell in love and got married.

We'll let their son, Tampa funeral director Chuck Segal, pick up the story from there.

"My dad, being the practical one, said, "We should sell our cars' - he had a Dodge - "and we'll take the money and buy one car for both of us,' " Chuck Segal said. "So that's what they did. They bought a '56 Plymouth."

But like so many of us, Mrs. Segal was never able to forget her first true love.

"She used to talk about Suzie all the time," Chuck said. "She had pictures of herself sitting in it with the top down. You could tell she felt very glamorous. And she never let my father forget that he had made her give up Suzie. They'd look at other cars and she'd say, "If only I still had my Suzie.' "

Finally, Bob Segal had had enough. He had become an avid car collector, president of the Antique Automobile Club of America chapter in Fort Lauderdale, where the family had moved. He decided to find another Suzie and surprise his wife for their 25th anniversary in 1979.

It took a little longer than he expected. He finally found one, through a friend in Ohio, in 1981, and had it trucked down to Fort Lauderdale.

The family happened to be sitting outside their home when the flatbed truck pulled up. Mrs. Segal could hardly believe her eyes.

"My first thought was, "My Suzie's come home to me,' " said Mrs. Segal, who is now a real estate agent in Hawthorne, near Gainesville.

The new car was virtually identical to the original Suzie: same color, same six-cylinder 136-horsepower Blue Flame engine, same two-speed Powerglide transmission, everything in perfect condition. The only difference was the top, which was white instead of black. Mrs. Segal liked the white top better anyway. "It's more Suzie-ish," she said.

The flatbed's driver rolled the new Suzie onto the street. Mr. Segal got in and tried to crank it up, but it wouldn't start. Let me give it a try, the truck driver said. Still nothing.

Then Jane Segal sat in Suzie II's seat for the first time. She turned the key and the car started right away.

The prodigal Chevy had returned. Just out of curiosity, the Segals looked up some of the old paperwork from Suzie I and compared serial numbers. Suzie II's number was only three numbers higher. The family figures the two cars rolled off the assembly line with just two others in between. They were probably born the exact same day, so Suzie I and Suzie II were twin sisters.

For the first time since the 1950s, the Segal family was complete. Suzie was always referred to by name, or as "she."

They had many other antique cars over the next two decades. They'd buy them and they'd sell them. There was never any talk about selling Suzie. Jane Segal wouldn't hear of it, and her husband knew better than to suggest it.

Last year, Bob Segal passed away from complications of Parkinson's disease. His wife couldn't stand to drive the car anymore. She took it to a party at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' house in Cross Creek, where a group of car enthusiasts were among the guests, and Suzie won an award called "Marjorie's Choice." Until she received the award, Jane Segal didn't even know there was a competition that night.

She got in the car to take it to an official, judged car show, as she had so often done with her husband. But she didn't feel right about going to a show without him. She couldn't bring herself to even pull out of the driveway.

So she gave the car to her son Chuck, who brought it back to Tampa, where Suzie has lived for the past year.

Suzie II is now 51 years old, and is original. His father was always that way about cars, and especially about Suzie. Replacement parts had to be authentic: Nylon tires with the wide white sidewalls, just like Suzie I. Even the battery looks just like the original.

There are only the slightest signs of age, Chuck Segal said. Move the sun visor and if you look closely you can see that the metal on the top of the windshield is slightly discolored. But driving down the street, it looks absolutely perfect.

He brings Suzie to cruise-ins and informal shows around town, where it's always a big hit. His 5-year-old daughter, Rachel, likes to hang around and wait for people to admire her aunt Suzie.

"She stays within earshot and as soon as she hears someone talking about it she goes over and tells them the story about Suzie," Chuck Segal said. "She doesn't know what a Chevy is, but she knows Suzie.

"So you can see, Suzie found a good family."

[Last modified June 23, 2005, 08:09:06]