Billie Standley’s Final Ride

Billie Standley was eccentric. His family said he was quirky, but loving. One thing is for certain. Billie was born to ride. Folks assumed he’d ride till the day he died. Well, Billie rode even longer, sitting astride his ’67 Harley Electra Glide straight into his grave.

As reported in the Dayton Daily News, the Mechanicsburg man bought “three extra burial plots at the Fairview Cemetery in Mutual, next to his wife, Lorna. The land was big enough for the 9-by-11-foot cement septic tank able to accommodate his bike. His sons, Pete and Roy, fashioned the casket out of Plexiglas, reinforcing the bottom with wood and steel rods to handle the extra weight. For five years, it sat in Standley’s garage.”

“If you stopped by his house, he showed you his casket,” his son, Roy Standley said.

Preparation:
– He wanted people to see him via a see-through coffin
– Five embalmers worked together to secure him with a back brace
– The casket was built in the garage of Vernon funeral home
– Included in the “casket” were his trophies and old leathers

As strange and unsettling as it may be at first glance, we can’t find fault in the guy’s desire to make an exit in his own way. It was his idea, his request. No doubt, we would do a double-take or make a sideways glance if we saw the procession go by, but it’s hard not to nod and salute his chutzpah.

His son, Pete told the Dayton Daily News, “He’d done right by us all these years, and at least we could see he goes out the way he wanted to.”