Up for auction: 56-year massive collection of classic cars and service station memorabilia

An uphill gravel road on the fringes of Cape Girardeau leads to the secluded home of 80-year-old Joan McPherson. Her husband passed away last year leaving behind a massive collection of classic cars, vintage service station pumps, 8,000 spark plugs and branded signage galore — all now assigned to the auction block.

The collection will be auctioned off in its entirety beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at 232 Sierra Ridge in Cape Girardeau. McPherson said it’s exciting, but she has “mixed emotions” seeing it all go.

She and Wayne’s 56 years of adventures trailing Southeast Missouri State University baseball — 70 games per season — have amassed three garages and a house full of auto, taxidermy memorabilia and paintings.

He retired from Southeast in 1992; she retired in 1996, McPherson said.

“We didn’t pass too many antique stores or junk yards,” she said. “Every room in the house, except the kitchen, had spark plugs in it.”

Auto and service station memorabilia is seen on a shelf Friday at the McPherson's home in Cape Girardeau.TYLER GRAEF

On weekends and during vacations, McPherson said she and her husband would show their cars — including a 1934 Ford Deluxe Phaeton and 1908 Buick Model 10 Runabout — in 22 states.

“We’ve won best of show in 19 of those,” she said, adding the 1934 is a show-winning car; “The other cars are just fun cars.”

McPherson said, “We would get out, usually on Wednesdays, and drive 16 hours to Hershey, Pennsylvania, to the big meet there, and we did that about 20 years in a row.”

Within one of the nearby garages surrounded by a poison ivy perimeter sits a restored white 1968 Mercedes-Benz 250SL Roadster. Next to is an antique collection of glass oil bottles, oil cans and oversized Texaco Motor Oil, Quaker State and Ford signage.

The Mercedes was a present to her husband.

Joan McPherson pats the trunk of a 1968 Mercedes-Benz -- which was a favorite of her late husband, Wayne, who collected cars and other service station memorabilia -- Friday at her home in Cape Girardeau. McPherson said the car had captured her husband's imagination in the late 1960s, but since both she and Wayne taught at nearby Southeast Missouri State University, he'd made peace with the thought the car was simply out of their budget. "We certainly didn't have the money to drive a Mercedes," Joan recalled. So, in a move she now admits was less than prudent, she bought him the car. "He loves it," she said with a smile. "I never did take up to it." The car, along with all the others and a lifetime of memorabilia, will go to auction soon as Joan prepares to move to a residential living community.TYLER GRAEF

“He saw it and he wanted it,” she said. “We didn’t have the money; we were teachers. We sure didn’t have money to drive a Mercedes.”

Among the memories, McPherson picked up an original charcoal grill from 1934.

“They were for camping; they didn’t understand tailgating,” she said, holding it by its wire-thin handle.

In a neighboring garage with a narrow walkway sits a side shaft gas engine — one of 30 on the property — and a red Texaco gas pump with original glass globe — one of McPherson’s seven. On the wall hangs 12 light-up, vintage clocks stamped with Fire Ring, Champion, Exide and Autolite branding.

The collection continues inside the adjacent shag carpeted two-story home. Mobil oil bottles and chauffeur hats line the walls, including a briefcase of Blue Crown spark plugs from 1942. It’s McPherson’s favorite, she said of the velvet lined salesman sample.

Joan McPherson powers on an array of automotive-themed clocks in a garage near her home Friday in Cape Girardeau.TYLER GRAEF

She doesn’t know how much the estate is worth, McPherson said.

“I just have no concept, because it depends on whether you get one buyer or two buyers,” she said.

But she said it’s time to let somebody else enjoy the collection.