Fate travels in a Missouri Volkswagen bus named Fred
A little over a year ago, Josh Hunter got rousted out of bed by a phone call at 2 a.m.
It was nothing all that unusual for Hunter, who was working as a tow truck driver in the tiny Missouri town of Stover, about 100 miles southeast of Kansas City. But he could have never predicted that the call would take him on a yearlong automobile odyssey.
After securing a car that had caught fire about 20 miles from his home, he crested a hill near the town of Fortuna, and there under the glow of a barn light, was a 1957 Volkswagen panel bus.
“I freaked out,” Hunter said. “I marked it on my GPS, called my wife, told her I had something to show her. I took the car back to the impound lot, dropped it off, headed home, picked up my wife, Danielle, and took her straight back up there.”
“She was as excited as I was.”
So why all the excitement over a rusty old bus? Hunter grew up under the tutelage of his father, Robert Hunter, a longtime Volkswagen guru in Kansas City. The family had owned or worked on just about everything VW has ever made.
That passion still burns strong for Hunter. So along with his wife, they dove into finding out more about the aging bus.
Things started getting crazy
While digging through county records, they discovered the property owners had died years ago, as had their son. But they were able to track down the son’s widow, Kelly Woolery, who agreed she might be willing to sell the bus she always considered yard art.
The Hunters met Woolery a couple of weeks later and got their first up close and personal look at the bus. Through all the rust and layers of fading paint they could make out the name Cooper, and something about a TV repair business painted on the side.
A tip from a friend led the Hunters to a Chris Cooper who lived down the road in Versailles, and it turns out that it was his father who owned the bus and TV repair business. And while the chit-chat continued in Cooper’s front yard, Hunter discovers that his mother, Kathy, and Chris Cooper’s sister were best friends while growing up in Stover.
“Then things started getting crazy,” Hunter said.
“So, where do you live in Stover?” Cooper asked Hunter.
“I told him that we moved from Kansas City to Stover, and that I lived in my grandpa’s house right in town, Reno Brunges.”
Cooper couldn’t believe it. He was familiar with the house. Very familiar. His parents, Roger and Bonnie Cooper, the former owners of the bus and TV repair business, lived in the very house decades ago. They rented it from Hunter’s grandfather.
That was in 1960. “It blew my mind. It was something I never expected. I could have never asked for something that cool to happen to me,” Hunter said.
‘It was meant to be’
By now he knew one thing: He had to have that bus.
“It was meant to be,” he said.
The only thing left to do now was to convince Kelly Woolery to give up the bus for a fair price. But this serendipitous journey wasn’t complete yet. There were more negotiations over the coming weeks, and a chance meeting that is rather hard to believe.
Hunter had taken a new job working construction for a friend in Stover, and his first day on the job was one he’ll never forget. Along with his boss, he headed to a home kitchen remodel.
As introductions were made with the homeowners, Hunter suddenly realized that he had just stepped into the home of Roger and Bonnie Cooper. The former owners of the bus were standing right in front of him.
Roger and his father had the TV repair business all those years ago.
“It was great to finally meet them in person and put names to the faces I had heard so much about. This is a place where my mom grew up,” Hunter said. “She was best friends with their daughter, Robyn.”
A bus named Fred
The negotiations with Kelly Woolery continued. “We would talk to her every two weeks at the minimum. I tried not to be too pushy with it, but I always wanted to be in her ear. You know I had to have this bus, I had to have this bus,’’ Hunter said.
Finally, after nearly a year, they struck a deal, and Hunter, his wife and their two children, Joshua, 14, and Adrianna, 12, piled into their 1976 VW bus named Oscar and headed down the road to bring Fred (Flintstone, because he has no floorboards) home for the first time in nearly six decades.
“It’s been a mind-blowing year,” Hunter said. “To say we’ve lost sleep is an understatement. And I thought it would get better once we got him home, and that’s not right. I’ve been up till 2, 3, 5 o’clock in the morning last night, trying to get these brakes ready.
“I’m still not sleeping, even though he’s home. It’s been one thing after another, and we love it.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
