Cleavers attend 50th Edsel anniversary
Shelley Cleaver has attended each of the 39 celebrations

Shelley Cleaver of Craft is the owner of three Edsel vehicles, including this Edsel pickup truck. In all he has owned 20 vehicles. Mr. Cleaver and his son, Michael and daughter-in-law, Melissa have just returned from the 50th Edsel anniversary convention.

Sept. 4, 1957, represents an important date for a group of die-hard automobile fans. The date is known as E-day, the day the first "experimental car," later known as the Edsel, was produced.

One Craft man and his family have attended anniversary conventions for 39 years, to trade stories with other Edsel fans and talk about Ford's brief foray with five models - Citation, Corsair, Pacer Ranger and Villager - and why the cars flopped. He attended the first Edsel owner convention in 1968.

Shelley Cleaver, 72, currently owns three running vehicles, and he has owned 20 models in the 50 years since the cars first rolled off the assembly line. Currently his fleet includes a 1958 pickup truck made with an Edsel front-end and a 1957 Ford Ranger bed; a 1959 Edsel Ranger turquoise and white automobile; and his prize possession, a 1960 red Edsel with only 45,000 miles and its original paint. "I have a bunch of junkies in the woods that I use for parts," he said.

The Edsel is a head-turning automobile, and folks used to joke that the cars came in two sizes: big and bigger.

When the assembly lines quit producing the Edsel cars, Ford came out with the Ranger pickup truck, which used the same name sign as the Ranger Edsel.

Mr. Cleaver and his son, Michael, and daughter-in-law Melissa, recently returned from the 50th Edsel celebration in Dearborn, Mich. The event was held July 25-29. The celebration was held to coincide with the 144th birthday of Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Co. Mr. Ford was born on July 30 1863.

On Friday registration at the annual banquet was closed with 454 persons. Others were turned away at the door. There were eight persons attending from England, three from Denmark and three from Aruba. Also attending were Roy Brown, Lincoln designer and Jim Arnold, the first person hired by Edsel Ford.

A slide presentation of the history of the Lincoln, including a picture of the 2008 model was presented. This is the first preview of the new Lincolns.

A Saturday morning parade moved eight miles down Telegraph Road. The Cleavers rode in an Edsel limousine.

While in Dearborn, they toured the Edsel Ford home. The Edsel Ford family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Ford and their three sons and daughter, moved into the 60- room house in 1929.

Mr. Cleaver's son, Michael, now 31, has attended 32 conventions, the first being before he was a year old. He received a plaque at this summer's convention for his life-long participation.

Prior to their wedding, Michael registered Melissa as a member of the Edsel owners organization. Both Texas A&M University graduates, they were married at the Lon Morris College chapel.

Mr. Cleaver drove them in his red Edsel to the reception. Attending the wedding were Edsel owners from throughout North America including three from Minnesota and three from Canada.

David Watson, an Edsel owner from England, came in 1977 to attend the Edsel convention. He came to Jacksonville to visit with Mr. Cleaver and travel with him to the convention.

"He called me from the Dairy Queen in Jacksonville. And I went and got him and brought him to my home," he said.

Edsel owners may appear very ordinary, but are a special breed and they are all proud of being Edsel owners.

Mr. Cleaver has been featured on the front page of the Spring 2006 issue of Connections magazine for the officials and employees of Texas counties.

The name "Edsel" eventually became synonymous with "marketing failure," and became a case study of how "not" to bring a product to market.

The Edsel Ranger cost between $2,484 and $2,643, which was $63 less than the Mercury Medalist's price of $2,547 to $2,617. All other models were priced in line with the Mercury counterpart. Automobile historians say the two Edsel and Mercurys were too close in price and too similar to vehicles offered by the Mercury division of Ford Motor Company.

The recession of 1958 launched the vehicle into a shrinking marketplace, and surprisingly, the vehicle was criticized for requiring "premium fuel" and not being energy efficient.

For all the "failure to launch" jokes hurled at the Edsel, it was not a lemon. It included engineering feats such as a "rolling dome" speedometer and a teletouch transmission system.

Less than 6,000 Edsels have survived, and they are considered collector's items. Each of the owners has a story, just like Mr. Cleaver's.

In addition to his Edsel convention endeavors, Mr. Cleaver is an active member of the Cherokee County Historical Commission, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Craft Baptist Church, as well as other organizations. He retired on Dec. 31, 1997, from Cherokee County Precinct 3.