Two sisters that lived in a 1966 Pontiac Tempest

Finding refuge. ​The front and rear bench seats of a 1966 Pontiac Tempest became beds for Louise and Verna Price. These sisters once lived in a small, wood-framed home that was damaged by age and neglect so severe that the roof gave up and the walls folded. Neighbors in Pinson, Alabama worried over the sisters' care as they continued to live without heat or electricity in the decaying home. Reluctant to receive assistance, the reclusive women found another housing option when the house became too dangerous and conditions unbearable. In 1996, Louise and Verna, now in their early 60s, moved their living quarters into the one-car, 10-foot-by-20-foot, wooden garage which sat behind the house. The garage roof and walls protected them from the elements and the green four-door Tempest became their place to rest. 

For 13 years the sisters lived in a house without electricity and parts of the home collapsing around them.
Photo by The Birmingham News/Mark Almond

Father knows best

The ever reclusive women, now beyond middle-age but holding fast to childlike sensibilities, continued to follow their father's lessons long after his death way back in December of 1963. The sisters refused to leave the property where they were raised unless it was to go to church or to the store. Their father, Addie Price, was stubborn and reluctant to trust outsiders. He was a stern man who was notably quiet but would argue with a fence post to prove he was right. He taught his only children, Louise and Verna, to stay close to the yard and not socialize unless it was at church. Addie did not allow his daughters the opportunity to learn to drive a car. If he couldn't take them, they had to walk or ride the bus. 

After father died

Verna, the younger of the two sisters by a year, took driving lessons after her father passed and became the primary driver of the 1966 Pontiac Tempest when she was 29 years old. The car was purchased at Doug Willey Pontiac in Birmingham, Alabama in late 1965. The Reef Turquoise four-door sedan also had Turquoise Morrokide seats on the interior. This budget-minded Pontiac was bare bones from the factory. No power steering, no power brakes, no air conditioning, and only rubber floor mats. No carpet. A column-shift automatic transmission, 326-cu. inch V8, and an AM radio were the only extra cost items on this Pontiac.

1966 Pontiac Tempest parked in garage since 1986 gets a new home.

Momma kept them going

The sisters’ mother, Lyda, was the complete opposite of Addie. Lyda was sweet to a fault. After Addie died, their mother was the glue that held the small family together for almost 16 years, until she too became ill. Lyda passed away in 1979. The sisters, then in their early 40s, survived on the generosity of a local church and neighbors who left food for them. Their future was uncertain and they fell back to what their daddy taught them. “Trust no one and stay close to the yard.”

Dangling trash?

The sisters tied the empty bread wrappers, pie tins, and just about all the trash discarded from the donated food items in the hedgerow and trees that separated their yard from the neighbors. Passersby thought it was odd but it was the Price sisters’ gesture of saying “thank you” for the food. As a neighborhood kid who grew up in Pinson in the 1980s, I encountered the mysterious trash dangling in the shrubs, never knowing the source. 

Unusual ways

The inseparable sisters continued to have tea parties with their childhood dolls under the shade just in front of the garage. Several decades of neighborhood children on Walnut Street grew up wary of the unusual sisters. Rumors created by children and adults are often unkind when they don't understand the circumstances. Some speculated that the sisters were suffering from hallucinations or schizophrenia. Whatever the reasons, the Price sisters closed themselves off from everyone. Their peculiar ways were known among the locals in Pinson, such as cutting the grass in their yard with scissors or wearing two heavy coats to the grocery store in the middle of summer. One heavy coat is an alarming sight during an Alabama summer. But two is unheard of!

For nearly two decades after their mother passed away the Price sisters survived without guidance on the upkeep and maintenance of a home. With little money to spend on anything but the primary necessity of food, everything else suffered. The last tag sticker bought for the Tempest was 1986. The women wore long outdated clothes from the late 1950s and 1960s, and walked to the store. By 1997, the meager check from the local church stopped coming. That’s when things changed because the sisters had no other choice. The house fell in. Their world had fallen apart.

Photo by The Birmingham News/Bernard Troncale

Help is on the way

Louise Price walked to the preacher’s house. He was the man in charge of the First Baptist Church of Pinson and would have an answer.

“Why did we stop getting our check?” Louise Price asked.

Brother Gary Fisher was surprised to see one of the Price sisters at his door. The sisters had not set foot in the church in many, many years. Never under his tenure, which was quite a while.

“We will straighten this out, and get you some help,” said Fisher.

It did not take long for Brother Fisher to understand the dire situation of the Price sisters. He was ready to do anything to help and knew he would have the full support from his congregation. The sisters, after a brief stay at Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa and a mental health evaluation, were moved to a rental house near their old home place. In 1999, the church built the Price sisters a new house to live in on the same property with the little white garage and the green Pontiac Tempest.

Louise and Verna Price lived together in their new house for many years. The Pontiac stayed in the garage. 

Parting thoughts

As I think back on the history of the car and the story behind it, I was most interested in preserving the story of how the Price sisters, two strong-willed women, survived using everything available including their 1966 Pontiac as a makeshift home. Their church, neighbors, and larger community stepped up to help them when they needed it most. 

Verna Price passed away in November of 2012 at 75. Ella Louise Price passed away 9 months later, in August of 2013 at 77. The property, including the home and Pontiac, were sold in 2014.

Jody Potter

– Junkyard Life

Inside and outside, the Reef Turquoise color is everywhere.

Bare bones engine bay with a 1966 Pontiac 326-cu inch V8.

At some point the trunk lock area was damaged with an axe. The sharp cuts and dents remain as proof that someone (one of the Price sisters?), improvised and unlocked the trunk without a key.

Back seat of the 1966 Pontiac Tempest.

The Pontiac spent more years inside this garage than outside. It was parked in 1986.

Call them mud dauber, dirt dauber, or potter wasps – they built homes all over the Tempest.

10x20 foot garage was home to the Price sisters and their Pontiac.

Rats nests were piled high under this part of the hood.

The Tempest's dash looks perfect.

You haven't seen a battery like this in a few years. Acid leaked out and damaged the core support.

Door panels, like everything else, are original.

The Pontiac was purchased at Doug Willey in Birmingham, Alabama.

Heater box, hoses, and a V8 engine under the hood. 

Pristine Pontiac floor mats.

The PRNDL on the column.

The 1966 Pontiac Tempest/LeMans/GTO grill design is a beauty.

Looks like barn find dust on the hood of the 1966 Tempest.

Hubcaps all the way around.

Driver's seat and the entire interior was once packed solid with blankets and used as makeshift beds for the Price sisters.

Odometer at 59,759 miles.

Turquoise paint is waiting to shine after all the dirt and grime is washed away.

Tag from Price's Drugs, a store on Main Street, remains on the Pontiac.

Back seat in the Tempest.

The old tires held air long enough to trailer the Tempest to its new home.

Body looks straight, solid, and original.

Original spare.

Tempest emblem and tail light trim detail.

Simple lines of 1966 design and a snug fit in the little garage.

The Price sister's Tempest found a new home two minutes away.

Do you have a car story? Send us details!  Send emails to Jody Potter at junkyardbull@gmail.com & Ron Kidd at Kidd403@bellsouth.net