Centenarian Who Buzzed Around in Classic Packard 740 Roadster Dies at 104

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Even in Detroit, the birthplace of the American automobile, Margaret Dunning was in a class by herself as she cruised along in her treasured 1930 Packard 740 roadster well after she turned 100 – leaving in her exhaust a paparazzi of national media and celebrities from The New York Times to Jay Leno.

Ms. Dunning, of Plymouth, died Sunday, a month shy of her 105th birthday. She was on the go as usual, visiting in California, when she died of injuries sustained in an accidental fall, the Observer & Eccentric reports. Funeral services are pending at Schrader-Howell Funeral Home.

A regular participant in the Woodward Dream Cruise and the Concours d’Elegance, Ms. Dunning had a reputation for knowing a spark plug from a piston and a knack for tinkering with both. She restored several classic cars over the years, but the Packard – “an old sweetheart of a car,” she told Patch.com in 2012 – was her treasure. She owned and maintained it, changing the oil herself up until jut a few years ago, for more than 60 years. Flawlessly restored, it was a show-stopper at various showcases and exhibits across the country.

Ms. Dunning’s love affair with the automobile began when she was 10, though one of her first experiences behind the wheel was a nerve-rattling one that ended when her family’s Overland touring car crashed into a barn, fracturing several boards.

That’s the day she learned about horsepower, according to a 2011 New York Times story. Turning the mishap into a teaching moment, young Margaret’s father asked her if she had any idea how much power she needed to keep under control.

“He explained to me how, for some jobs, it was better to use multiple horses,” Ms. Dunning told The Times. “But the minute you lose control, you’ve got wild horses to deal with. “And that’s how he taught me about horsepower. And it stuck with me.”

She drove and drove and drove after that, from a Maxwell truck to tractors, to the Model-T she inherited when her father died when she was 12. She got her driver’s license then so she could drive her mother, who had arthritic feet and couldn’t drive, wherever she needed to go.

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The Packard became available by chance in 1949 when the pregnant wife of the man who was restoring it “announced just before the car was finished that she was not about to bring up a baby in a roadster,” she told interviewers at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance a few years ago.

Ms. Dunning said that without hesitation, she “bought it over the phone.”

“I’ve always loved Packards very much,” she told Patch.com in 2012, noting the eye-catching car was the first to get a 100-point Classic Car Club. “They’ve been very much a part of my life.”

John McKay, a former Patch.com editor who interviewed Ms. Dunning in 2012 on her 102nd birthday, said the outside world sees a “strong-willed centenarian driving a Packard,” but to Plymouth residents, she was a philanthropist and influencer who has presided over countless community projects.

She backed her knowledge and passion for community history with $1.1 million contribution that make the Plymouth Historical Museum an undisputed authority on the area’s history.

As a witness to much of Plymouth’s history, she offered a unique perspective reflected in the exhibits. “”You get interested in (the historical periods), and you go back and start reading more and more, and you go, ‘I guess I was there at that time,’ ” Dunning told Patch in 2012.

“She was a living legend in Plymouth,” McKay said. He only met her on her once, on her 102nd birthday, when time can blur the edges of some centenarians’ memories, but Ms. Dunning ”disarmed me with her sharp memory and quick wit,” he said.

Museum board president Pam Yockey told the Observer & Eccentric the loss of Ms. Dunning’s expertise and her presence will be felt for years to come.

“Margaret was truly caring, down to earth, unpretentious and giving of her time …” Yockey said. “She has counted among her friends the world, celebrities, rajas and us. How privileged we have been for the opportunity to know Margaret. We will dearly miss her – our friend, our adviser, and our mentor.”

Video and screenshot via YouTube from the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where Ms. Dunning received a special award from Jay Leno.