Car of the Week: 1947 International KB-2 pickup
This 1947 International KB-2 pickup has served one family for five generations.
When Jeb Bass says he and his 1947 International KB-2 pickup go way back, he’s not kidding.
On the night of March 27, 1950, another Bass — then-32-year-old Glenn — borrowed this very truck from an uncle to drive his wife, Mary Jane, to a hospital in Shelbyville, Ind. The couple was anxious to reach their destination as fast as possible, because Mary Jane was going into labor.
Upon arrival at the hospital, Mary Jane gave birth to a baby boy — James Edgar Bass. The proud parents immediately began calling the child “Jeb” — the acronym of his initials.
Some three decades later, the same uncle who loaned the truck to the expectant young couple handed over the truck’s title to Jeb — who had no idea of the backstory until his uncle, Edgar Hack, told him about it.
“The day Uncle Edgar gave me the title, he said, ‘I think you ought to keep this truck,’” Jeb recalls. “He said, ‘You kind of took your first ride in it.’ I said, ‘I did?’ And he said, ‘The night you were born, your dad borrowed my truck to drive your mom to the hospital.’”
The circumstances of why Glenn Bass lacked access to any other vehicle that night have been lost to history. In any case, Uncle Edgar was happy to oblige.
And Jeb remembers his parents borrowing the truck on many occasions over the years, so the fact they borrowed it for the frenzied trip to the hospital does not seem out of the ordinary.
“I remember my father taking pigs to the stockyard in this truck,” Jeb said. “And my mother took all of us kids camping in it.”
Edgar ordered the truck new on July 2, 1947, from an International Harvester dealership in Shelbyville called the McWilliams-Carter Co. The price was $1,335.
“He wanted to keep his business local,” Jeb said. “And, of course, back in the 1940s, International was pretty much the top choice as a farm vehicle. It’s geared low because that’s what they wanted in farm trucks.”
Edgar used the truck to work his fields in the vicinity of Boggstown, Ind., just a few miles from his home in Fairland. Both towns are located in Shelby County, southeast of Indianapolis.
International Harvester Co., which built light pickup trucks from 1907 to 1975, rolled out its KB series trucks in 1947. That’s the same year IHC restarted civilian vehicle production in the United States following World War II.
The 1947 KB models were barely updated versions of International’s K series from 1940. Despite the aging design, the KB series sold well. Between 1947 and 1949, IHC sold 122,000 KB-1 and KB-2 trucks. Jeb’s KB-2 is powered by the 213-cid Green Diamond flathead six-cylinder engine.
After his uncle gave him the truck in the 1980s, Jeb used it as a workhorse, just as his uncle and father had done.
“When I first got the truck, I would haul firewood with it,” Jeb recalled. “I put those stock racks on it, and I’d keep this baby full of firewood. And I’d go back to the farm, and I’d cut wood and throw it in here into the bed.”
At some point, he began appreciating the truck’s status as an antique survivor.
“One day I got to thinking,” he remembered. “And I said, ‘What an idiot. That truck’s a 1947 International.’ And that’s when I decided to quit doing stupid things with it.”
He proceeded to get it repainted in 1992, and around 2020, he had the engine overhauled.
Bass is a member of a local group called the Poor Boys Car Club, which participates in car shows and cruise-ins across central and southeastern Indiana, among other activities.
Over the years, Bass has driven the truck in several community parades and sometimes allowed local political candidates to use it as a rolling campaign prop.
He counts five politicians who have used it in their efforts to attract voters. The truck must bring good luck, he added, because all five candidates have won their races.
Interestingly, the truck has served both Republican and Democratic candidates.
“It’s a bipartisan truck,” he quipped.
The most enjoyment he has had with the truck, he said, has involved family activities with his wife, Lynn, the couple’s three sons and their seven grandchildren.
Looking into the long-term future, Bass has willed the truck to his oldest son. “So it will stay in the family,” he said. But in the meantime, Bass looks forward to a lot more car shows, cruise-ins and family time involving the truck.
Beyond the aforementioned family members, Jeb and Lynn also have two 1-year-old great-grandsons just months apart in age.
“If I get one of the great-grandsons in for a ride,” he said, “that will be six generations of this family in that truck!”
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