The story of a trustworthy mechanic

This story is very much like one of Paul Harvey’s, the ABC radio network storyteller of years past. He would tell a news story and then would use the catchphrase, “and now the rest of the story.”

He would then give insight to the event with little known background information. It was an ear catching story at mid-morning five days a week and Saturdays at noon from the 70’s until the 90’s.

A previous issue of the Wimberley View featured a story about Frederico Vigil’s fresco at the back of Calley’s Jewelry. The fresco is interesting, unique and represents a slice of time in Wimberley and its near past. The mechanic pictured in the fresco is a longtime local. Now for ‘the rest of the story.’

Frederico Vigil, an Albuquerque, New Mexico fresco artist, created the fresco in 2011. He is currently working on the world’s largest fresco in Albuquerque. Having one of his works in such a small town is pretty unique.

There are two people in the fresco, a fictitious lady from Houston and the mechanic fixing her car. It was discovered that the actual mechanic in the fresco is Wimberley resident Steve Loveless.

The fresco depicts a typical day in Wimberley. “The Texaco was right downtown, on the Square and a tourist has got car problems… so it is not anybody specific,” Steve said.

You might know Steve from his white and baby blue, two-tone and tear drops, 1956 Chevy station wagon around town. It is his main vehicle, the other two a 1968 F 250 pickup and a 1936 Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Steve has been in Wimberley for about 25 years. He moved here because, as a single dad, he wanted small town life for his kids. He took a job as a mechanic here, never regretting his move.

Steve is originally from Arlington, Virginia. He grew up building model cars and when he got in high school he loved to listen to the older guys talk about their cars. He graduated high school in 1969, tried junior college and realized it wasn’t for him. He got a job at a sheet metal factory, and realized that really wasn’t for him and joined the Marine Corps.

Loveless spent a year in Vietnam and “got out with no skills, not practical skills anyways… I was a machine gunner. The only job (prospect) was the mafia.”

In 1973 he started to work at a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Levelland, west of Lubbock, as an automotive diesel mechanic, “and worked my way up to director of the whole program… I decided that this is not my career path.”

In 1994 a divorce came and he was living west of Lubbock. In 1995, he found himself raising his two children by himself and decided to move to Wimberley, “the best thing I ever did… I loved the town and the Texaco franchise needed a mechanic, so we moved in the summer of ’95.” He continued.

“I wanted to be an honest mechanic and overcome the stigma of mechanics and shops that take advantage of people. And that happens a lot. Trust… I charged as little that I could and still make a living.”

He’s been retired seven and a half years now, but still works on old cars. “Newer cars have no character, that’s just me. Cars of olden days were pretty to look at, the aesthetics, the look and the lines.” He still works on cars, but by his choice and it must be a classic or antique.

As for the fresco, he was the last mechanic at the then-operating Texaco station. “Les Crane called me and said ‘come up to the station and pose for the fresco.’ The artist actually took pictures for the fresco…he had me do a few different things, kneel down like I’m fixing something, not a lot of photos.

“I thought it was kind of neat looking. I’ve been here 25 years, and to have them put a fresco where I worked was kind of neat.”

And that’s the rest of the story.

(Editor’s Note: This story was suggested by a reader who knew Steve Loveless was the mechanic pictured in the fresco. If you know of a person in town who has an interesting life story, email suggestions to [email protected])