The following is taken from my father’s first book, a collection of his Post Script columns (this one from April 30, 1954):

A salesman from Iowa was in town Friday. And he told us an unusual story which he insisted was true. It concerned a wreck a few days ago near Sigourney, Iowa, which has the folks around that area still excited.

It seems that a local undertaker had a call to go to another Iowa town to pick up a body for burial. He and another man took the hearse and went to the town, picked up the body and started back home.

Hitchhiker Makes a Request

When they reached Keokuk, Iowa, they stopped for coffee. One of them stepped outside first. A man approached and asked if he could hitch a ride to Sigourney about 100 miles away. The driver said it wouldn’t be out-of-the-way. But he told him the front seat was occupied and that a body was in the rear.

The man said he wouldn’t mind riding inside with the corpse. The driver said that was okay, so the man hopped inside. But the driver forgot to mention this fact to his driving partner. In fact the driving partner took the wheel for the remainder of the trip home.

Passenger Quiet to a Critical Point

The extra passenger was quiet. But as they neared Sigourney he wanted to make sure he would be let out. So, he tapped the driver on the shoulder and said, “Don’t forget, I want out in Sigourney.” The startled driver lost control of the hearse from the shock and wrecked it.

The wreck injured no one seriously. But the driver hasn’t fully recovered from what he thought was the voice of a dead person!