If you've been to any parades in the Lincoln-Way area, whether it was Loyalty Day, Fourth of July or Fall Fest, chances are you've seen or heard Happy Bettenhausen.
He figures he's participated in 114 parades. Years ago, he would ride on a float he designed for Phillips Chevrolet and play accordion with his polka band.
Happy Bettenhausen, 85 years old, walks around Phillips Chevorlet in Frankfort playing his accordion. Bettenhausen sold cars when Philips was located at Heritage Hall. -Mary Compton/SouthtownStar
"At 85, I can't do that anymore," Happy says. Now he drives a cool car while toe-tapping music emits from speakers mounted on the roof. No matter. Happy is doing what he loves twofold: playing the accordion and promoting Phillips Chevrolet, both of which he's been doing for decades.
"I'm going to start work tomorrow on a float for the New Lenox Loyalty Day parade (May 2)," he said from his desk at Phillips, where he still comes to work five days a week. He opens the place up, makes the coffee (116 cups a day), writes the weekly newsletter (he's penned 525 to date), tends to the plants and test drives used cars.
"I could quit if I wanted to, but I want to make sure you guys get your Social Security checks," he says with a smile, proudly wearing his Chevy bow tie and cap. "I'm the PR man for Phillips Chevrolet. I still sell a car now and then, but I let the young fellas make a living."
Among the employees, he's the oldest, and among the salesmen, the longest serving with 34 years. Only one other employee - Jim Bell in the service department - has been at Phillips longer by five years.
The aptly named Happy is quick with numbers and with wit. He rattles off dates and numbers like they were written on his palm and trades jokes with a bald colleague about needing a haircut.
Born Norman, but called Happy since he was a year old, he went to school in Frankfort and married his childhood sweetheart, Dorothy, in 1944. He claims he has been in the car business since he was 11, working for $1 a day at his uncle's gas station in New Lenox.
In 1948, he opened Happy's Body Shop in Tinley Park, later merging with Jim Warning's car dealership at the old Heritage Hall in downtown Frankfort in 1963.
"It was a livery stable when I went to school," he says, noting how Frankfort has changed from an agricultural town of 440 people to an urban area.
He turned in his wrenches and became a salesman in 1974, joined Phillips in 1976 and figures he's sold 7,000 cars in his career. For 12 years in a row, (1977 to 1988) he won the salesman of the year award. "No one is going to beat that," Happy says. In his best month, he sold 46 cars, and in the best year, 322. His success was always based on trust.
And when he's not fixing or selling cars, Happy is entertaining folks with his polka band, and the accordion he's been playing since the 1950s. He still keeps one at his desk at Phillips and still enjoys regaling seniors in area nursing homes once or twice a year with the 50 old-time favorites on his playlist (that he plays by ear) such as "Roll Out the Barrel," "Goodnight Irene" and "When Irish Eyes are Smiling."
So, what makes Happy come to work every day, driving from his home in Manteno, where he now lives?
"It's my game. It has been my game all my life," he says. "At 85, I'm still young at heart. It's the respect that keeps me here. I can't explain enough the respect I get from these young people. If I felt I was an old duffer in the way, I would not be here. I really enjoy my position at Phillips."
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