A special ride for fallen LaHarpe man

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February 14, 2015 - 12:00 AM

Billy Chapman was carried just as he would have wanted for one final ride Thursday.
Chapman, 38, died Feb. 7, after falling ill at home.
Scores of family and friends attended his funeral Thursday, where he was taken to LaHarpe Cemetery in a customized motorcycle hearse, courtesy of Clear Creek Coach of El Dorado Springs, Mo.
The coach, with its clear glass sides, was towed by a three-wheeled Harley Davidson Road King Classic.
“He’s always loved motorcycles,” wife Mary told the Register. “He finally talked me a few months ago into letting him get his own motorcycle.”
Chapman was able to ride it a few times when the weather was warm enough, “but he was really looking forward to the spring so he could take his son,” Mary said.
The hearse drew curious looks from passersby in the hours before Thursday’s funeral service, after owner Don Guffy parked his hearse near Waugh-Yokum & Friskel mortuary.
“I’ve actually passed through Iola quite a few times, but this is my first service here,” Guffy said.
Guffy has owned and operated Clear Creek Coach after seeing a similar hearse in 2008.
The style is appealing in several ways, Guffy explained. For one, it hearkens back to funerals of yesteryear, in which coffins were carried in horse-drawn wagons.
Its glass sides, meanwhile, give a clear view of the coffin from the outside. That makes it particularly popular for military funerals.
But it doesn’t have to be military, or for bikers, Guffy noted.
“I did it for a little old lady a few months ago,” he said. “She probably never rode a motorcycle in her life, but saw this and said, ‘I want this to be a part of my funeral.’”
Guffy’s father, too, has directed his son to use the hearse when his day comes.
“He said it reminded him of his grandfather’s funeral, in a horse-drawn wagon,” Guffy said. “He wants the same — without the horses.”

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