BY JILL COWAN AND RACHEL COOK
Californian staff writers, Bakersfield.com
The sun glinted through morning mist Friday, illuminating the usually dusty golden hills east of Bakersfield. A few dozen motorcycles of all makes and colors rumbled to life, idling a moment before rolling off into the distance.
At the front of the pack was Donald "Bear" Simcox, 62, who took his final ride Friday -- in a Harley-Davidson hearse.
Billed as the first of its kind in California, the "Hawg Heaven Hearse" made its Bakersfield debut Friday, rolling out from Basham Funeral Home just before 9a.m.
"The turnout was just enormous," said funeral home owner John Basham. "It was the first opportunity we've had to use it and I believe we'll be using it again next Wednesday."
Basham's is now Bakersfield's only "Hawg Heaven Hearse"-authorized funeral home, though the motorcycle and trailer are actually owned by Monrovia-based Caring Funeral Services.
CEO and President Jim Larkin said Caring Funeral Services bought the hearse for about $100,000 several years ago.
The unconventional idea took a little while to catch on, he said.
But now, "it's popular for veterans because of the way it displays the flag," Larkin said. "And also for police funerals -- police and highway patrol officers who rode motorcycles."
Larkin, who's been in the business for 40 years, said the Harley hearse is just another way for loved ones to really reflect the lifestyle of the deceased.
"It used to be everybody got put in the white shirt and suit and tie," he said. "And now whether someone's in their pajamas or whether they're in their leather clothes -- whatever somebody wants to wear, people feel comfortable now doing their own thing and not conforming to what someone else had."
Basham, who has been in the funeral business for nearly 30 years, said he was always taught "to personalize things."
Now, he said, technology makes it easier for families to create slideshows and choose music.
"Every person is different, so their funeral service should be different," Basham said.
And for Simcox -- a Vietnam veteran and "old-school mechanic" who loved motorcycles more than almost anything -- something different was certainly fitting.
Simcox's close friend and fellow motorcycle enthusiast Jeff Cameron drove the specially modified three-wheeled Road King, which towed a gleaming black trailer with old-fashioned silver hardware. Larkin said the trike can tow up to 1,000 pounds.
The hearse's glass sides displayed Simcox's flag-draped casket.
Cameron, a former mortician himself whose training entitled him to drive the hearse, said he was honored to lead the ride.
"That's the way he'd want to go out," Cameron said of Simcox. "His daughters were the main loves of his life and his Shovelhead was his second."
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