Charley Ragland

[mrays]

I just found out last week that Charley Ragland died. You guys might not know him by name, but if you ever attended a Super Chevy Show at Martin, Indy, Norwalk or Joliet from the mid 90's to 2010 you probably saw one of his Chevelles. The Palomino Ivory 68 L78 and Cortez Silver 69 L34 were regulars in the Gold Class. The two L35 66's were also at a number of shows as well. I went to high school with his son Steve and he lived a couple of miles down the road from me. I drove past his house whenever I went to my parents house so I would stop in occasionally just to shoot the breeze and see what he was working on. He always had several cars in his shop that he was restoring. At one time he probably had about two dozen cars, mostly big block Chevelles. Once a year he would get them all out, wipe them down and take them out for a little exercise. I helped him with that task several times and enjoyed going along for the exercise part in the cars. He owned all the property along the block he lived on so he had his own little dragstrip in front of his house. I hadn't seen him since the fall of '19 and was hoping to stop by and see him once I was fully vaccinated. Unfortunately the day I got my second shot was the day of his funeral. He was a good guy that I will miss.