A Car With Character

She has several, including two at her Sunnyvale home. Other people's reactions vary. Neighbors call the cops to complain, children idolize her, and strange men offer lewd propsals.

Mark Marioni has two hearses and some similar experiences, though when dates see his wheels for the first time, "They shudder for a minute and say, 'This is your car, huh?' One girl said, 'Let's just take my car.'"

Shanafelt, 20, of Sunnyvale, has a white 1963 Cadillac hearse and a silver one built in 1965. Marioni, 24, of Los Gatos, has a 1964 Cadillac and a 1966 Cadillac. The two have started a hearse club so they can share their interest with other hearse owners in the area.

She's always on the alert for another hearse. "I want to buy as many as I can," she said.

To recruit members for the hearse club, "Grim Rides," she leaves notes under windshields of hearses when she finds them.

Shanfelt drives the silver 1965 every day, though it weighs 8,000 pounds and gets less than 10 miles to the gallon of gas. It has a "black crinkle" top and chrome landau bars decorating the sides of the top at the back.

The '65 is a "side-loader," meaning it has doors on the side to admit the casket, and the '63 an "end-loader".

Ghoulish symbolism and macabre wordplay is big with hearse owners. Shanafelt has taken a groom to his wedding in a hearse, and delivered dead flowers to one of her mother's friends who was getting a divorce. Hearses also are ideal for "Over the Hill" parties, she said. She wants to get a chauffer's license and rent them out.

A company in Hollywood does "Graveline Tours," pointing out, for instance, where Bill Frawley was standing when he suffered a heart attack and died, Shanafelt said.

Marioni said he doesn't revel in the creepier aspects of hearse ownership - he said he bought his because they are so well built - but has had some "really strange experiences" with them. The lights of the 1964 model used to go on and off at night, for no apparent reason. But it turned out that a previous owner had raised havoc with the electrical system, installing a huge stereo in the back.

Some of Shanafelt's neighbors have not been enthralled by her hobby, and were convinced the white hearse didn't run. Complaints were made to the city. Shanafelt was able to start it for a city inspector, who otherwise might have had it towed away as an abandoned car.

Marioni lives with two friends on an acre and a half orchard remnant, so no one is bothered by his hearses. A car collector, he got to reading about hearses a couple of years ago. "It was clear that hearses are very special cars. Each one was hand-built... They're very sturdy. very solid, very, very well-built."

All right, they're fun, too. "Most girls are just dying to get in my hearse," he cracked.