Neto's Tucson: Low-rider Caddie hearse draws attention

To make sure people passing by took notice, Legaspi parked his pride and joy outside his business: a hearse.

But this is not your granddaddy’s hearse. He parked his 2004 Fleetwood Cadillac, low-rider, cream-colored hearse.

“I’ve always wanted a low-rider coach,” said Legaspi, who owns two other hearses, including a black one, which he occasionally parks alongside the cream Caddie in front of Avenidas Cremations & Burial.

The low-rider funeral coach has 13-inch tires and custom rims with true spokes. The center of the rim is adorned with a gold colored cross and an “A.”

It’s used to transport caskets, but the hearse doesn’t bounce like other tricked-out barrio cruisers. It lacks the hydraulics.

Still, Legaspi’s ride is an attention getter, attracting neighbors and the occasionally curious.

“It got you here,” he said to me. Well, that and an editor who asked me more than once for a story on the off-the-wall hearse. Friday morning, I stopped by to chat with Legaspi.

He opened the crematorium a year ago; it’s his second. His first Avenidas Cremation and Burial opened five years ago in Avondale, west of Phoenix, where he lives.

He said business, which is primarily cremations, has been good on Tucson’s west side.

“I can’t think of a better place,” said Legaspi, sitting in the neatly adorned chapel with chairs on one side and a dark brown casket on the other. The walls are adorned with framed images. A brown wooden cross is attached to the wall above the casket.

His entry into the funeral business came in a roundabout way after he left the U.S. Marine Corps because of a medical disability in 1998: He was cutting grass in San Diego.

One of his job sites was a funeral home in the North Park section of San Diego. One day, the funeral home director suggested he consider working in the business and invited him inside.

That was in 1999. Several years later, wanting to be near his family, Legaspi, who was born in California, returned to Phoenix where he went to Carl Hayden High School. In 2010 he opened his crematorium.

The former Marine, who served combat duty in Somalia and has tattoos running up and down his arms that he collected from his nearly 19 years in the Navy and Marines, finds satisfaction in providing comfort to grieving families.

“Marines have this attitude, ‘Let me make it better,’” said Legaspi, 53, who sports a small ring in his right ear, and a salt-and-pepper goatee.

That attitude led him to provide low-cost crematorium and burial services. He has gruff words for corporate-owned funeral homes. Caskets and funerals and cremations don’t need to be high-priced, he said.

“We may be small, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do big things,” he said.

When he decided to open his Tucson business, Legaspi purposely wanted to put it in a Latino neighborhood. The bilingual Legaspi — his father was born in Mexico and served in the Korean War with the Army — picked Barrio Hollywood, west of North Grande Avenue. Legaspi also joined the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

He bought the 2,400-square-foot building and remodeled the interior. Inside is the reception area, a couple of small offices, two display rooms for caskets and urns, a small kitchen area, a preparation room and the chapel.

And in what may be a surprise to those who believe Tucson is anti-business, Legaspi said, “It was easier to open a business in Tucson than in Avondale.”

“I like serving the Latino community,” said Legaspi who is considering moving to Tucson, along with his partner and the three boys they are raising.