Fourth-generation PK Lake resident loves driving family history around lake
Story by Steve Nussbaum
Sossaman’s 1938 Master Deluxe Chevy parked in front of the historic Hamilton Building in Wichita Falls in 1938 and 2024.
When Brandon Sossaman isn’t traveling around the country putting on large music events, he comes back to his full-time home at Possum Kingdom, where his family has owned property for four generations.
During a recent trip to Austin, where he was helping organize the Austin City Limits Music Festival, Sossaman took a detour in an interview to mention that he loves returning to PK and driving the car that his great-grandfather, E.E. Ealy Jeter of Wichita Falls, Texas, bought back in 1938.
Sossaman said the 1938 Chevrolet Master Deluxe was one of the few splurges that his great-grandfather made in his life, but there were a few curves in the journey. He said Jeter went to buy the vehicle from Fox-Randel Chevrolet in Wichita Falls after saving up his money, but when he went to the dealership to complete the purchase, the dealership wouldn’t agree to the price Jeter was willing to pay, so he left without it.
Jeter’s son, Jack, then called the dealership and made up the difference in the price, so the dealership contacted Ealy Jeter and told him the car was his. For the rest of his life, Sossaman’s great-grandfather thought he had gotten his car for the price he was willing to pay, not knowing that his son had boosted the bottom line to help procure it.
Sossaman said his great-grandfather drove the car until the 1970s. It then sat unused in a pasture before the family began restoring the vehicle in 1984. Sossaman’s grandfather left the car to him in 2020, and these days it sports a rebuilt engine to go along with the classic mohair interior that has all been replaced. The classic beauty looks like something out of a Bonnie and Clyde movie, with a 216-cubic-inch engine paired with a three-speed gearshift on the floor, and Sossaman said its top speed is about 45 mph.
Sossaman finds joy in coming home and spending time at PK with his 12-year-old daughter, Emmaline, and said he usually takes the car out every Fourth of July. He added that he occasionally also takes the classic car to Mineral Wells for a cars-and-coffee get-together.
The classic 1938 Chevrolet Master Deluxe is older than Possum Kingdom Lake, and Sossaman said he would like nothing more than to pass down the vehicle – and his love of PK – to his daughter.
Brandon Sossaman’s vintage Master Deluxe Chevy parked I front of vintage gas station from the 1930’s
Brandon Sossaman and his daughter Emmaline enjoying classic car event in Mineral Wells, Tx.
