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Lebanon, Tennessee is a medium-sized city, located 15
miles east of Nashville where Perry Launis operated a small Meteor
professional car dealership during the 1950s. With the help of two friends,
he built a handful of stretched (by 32”) Oldsmobile ambulances and
combination coaches in his small Forrest Avenue shop during 1956.
Launis’ coaches attracted the attention of B.W. Bland,
a small casket manufacturer that was located across town. Bland provided Launis with a factory and showroom in return for a controlling interest in
the firm and production soon commenced on Dixie’s line of 1957 Oldsmobile
coaches. Bland had a satellite showroom in Nashville that proved useful to
the fledgling Dixie Coach as the bulk of their coaches were sold there.
Bland reorganized the firm as Dixie Coach Co. Inc. and
placed Martin Cummings in charge of the facility which was relocated to
larger facilities next to
the Bland Casket Co. plant at 405 South Maple St. in Lebanon.
A staff of ten produced 2
Oldsmobile flower cars and about 25 Olds and Pontiac ambulances and
combination coaches - plus a few truck-based commercial vehicles - during 1958
until a fire severely damaged the Dixie shop near the end of the year. Bland’s insurance covered the loss and the production of 1959 Pontiac
coaches commenced as their Oldsmobile line was abandoned the previous year.
The firm produced one dedicated funeral car during the year, with the rest
an even mix of ambulances and combination coaches, all built on the
Catalina’s new X-frame chassis. Dixie’s coaches were built using as many existing parts
as they could get their hands on. Door frames for the rear loading doors
were sourced from the GM parts bin as were Comet’s raised roofs which were
built using GM panel van sheet metal.
In late 1962 the decision was made to stop producing
their own coaches as re-tooling for Pontiac’s all-new 1963 coaches would
have been untenable. Dixie continued to distribute Miller-Meteor
coaches through the 1970s and replaced their Pontiac coaches with Cotner-Bevington’s line of Oldsmobiles starting in
the early 1960s.
© 2004 Mark Theobald - Coachbuilt.com
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