Wheels: Rose Martin Corvair burial

Auto enthusiasts have a special bond with their chosen ride. Have you ever heard someone say they love their car so much they want to be buried in it? Rose Martin did just that. Mrs. Martin of Tiverton, R.I., on the Massachusetts border passed away in 1998, at the age of 84, loved her car dearly and her wish for decades prior to her death was that she be interred in her car.

According to an news article from that time, Rose Martin was a widow and mother of three. She learned to drive at her son’s urging, later in life, earning her driver’s license a couple years before purchasing her new 1962 Chevrolet Corvair, a subcompact, rear-engine, air-cooled economy car with a controversial reputation thanks to Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who put himself on the map with his book “Unsafe at Any Speed” using the Corvair as an example of what he considered corporate carelessness regarding safety. Rose’s kids couldn’t convince her to make a different choice and the little Corvair came home.