More than one Forty Niner has some historical family connection to a ’49 Cadillac. Prez Joe Cutler’s Dad bought a Series 62 Club Coupe way back when, which Joe says was the inspiration for his own case of ’49-itis today. ‘49er Curtis Smith of Littleton, Colorado’s grandfather bought a Series 61 4-door in 1953 that Curt still owns. And there are other chapter members who have similar stories about various ’49 models.
Nonetheless, the best selling ’49 Cadillac was the Series 62 4-door sedan. 37,617 of the 6269s were made, constituting 40% of all ‘49s manufactured, more than twice as many as the next best selling model, the nearly identical Series 61 sedan (of which only 15,738 were made). Not surprisingly, more than one Forty-Niner has a family story about a long-ago-owned 6269. The first is from Alan Towne of Ocean Park, Washington whose grandmother owned a gray Series 62 sedan. It is shown in the photo below, which was taken in 1950 at Seaside, Oregon.

My Dad also owned a Series 62 4-door. He bought it second-hand in 1951, trading in a green 1948 Oldsmobile 98 convertible. (Wish I had that Olds now!). Our 6269 was also gray, identical to Alan’s grandmother’s car, and is shown below.

In the photo, taken on a 1952 vacation trip to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, my Dad is seated between my brother and me. We kids thought it was great that our family car was now a prestigious Cadillac, even though it was 2-years old.
Unfortunately, not long after the picture was taken, our family ‘49 came to an untimely end. We lived in New York City and one day my father parked it on a steep hill in the Bronx. I don’t know what he failed to do–either the Hydramatic wasn’t in “R” or the hand brake wasn’t set, or both–but after he locked the doors it rolled down the hill and self-destructed against some immoveable object. Fortunately, no people were around and there was no other damage. Following that episode my Dad stuck with Oldsmobiles.