Petelle Mercury.

The Family Business.

Don, a recent graduate of Carthage College, married Carlee Pochert on August 13, 1950.

In October of that year Walter and Bob obtained a Mercury franchise. The Mercury line was a division of Ford Motor Company touted by Edsel Ford. The cars were priced between Fords and the luxury Lincoln line.

Within weeks they opened a temporary showroom to debut the 1951 model. The new Mercury Monterey offered "Merc-O-Matic," a three speed automatic transmission drive as an option.

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Marie, center, with her daughters-in-law,
Dorothy, Babe, Lorr and Carlee at the grand
opening of Petelle Mercury in the summer of 1951.

In the meantime a 10,000 square foot building, shown below, was constructed at 6954 West Grand Avenue in Elmwood Park.

A family business, Walter was Chairman of the Board; Bob, President and General Manager; Wally, Vice President and Used Car Manager and Don, Office Manager/ Bookkeeper and Salesman for Petelle Motor Sales. (Edward stayed on with Illinois Bell Telephone Company.)

He received a medallion in 1953 (pictured below in the footer) from Ford celebrating "50 Years Forward on the American Road."

The men worked hard and in 1955 Petelle Mercury led all Mercury dealers in Cook County hitting 138.3% of their sales objective.

 

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The window of the dealership touts an endorsement from TV variety show host Ed Sullivan. In
the photo Walter, far left, stands next to Mr. Sullivan. The Lincoln-Mercury Division of Ford Motor
Company was a prime sponsor of his show.The print block is from an ad run by the dealership.
Note the name PETELLE etched into the stone at the top right of the building.

 

An excerpt from page 653 of Marquis
Who's Who in the Midwest - 1956.