The Love Story Behind This 2,500- Piece Beer Can Collection Up For Auction is Filled With Emotion
(Link): The Love Story Behind This 2,500- Piece Beer Can Collection Up For Auction is Filled With Emotion
Dec. 2021
by Cortney Moore
There’s a 2,500-piece beer can collection that’s gone up for auction, and behind it, there’s a love story.
Luverne Kahl’s husband “Catfish” John Kahl collected beer cans in the 30-plus years of their marriage. John died in 2019 at the age of 83 after a two-year battle with Parkinson’s.
The unique auction item, which was first reported by The New Orleans Advocate, began in November and will conclude on Saturday, Dec. 11.
Luverne told Fox News she’s now ready to part ways with the collection after her home suffered damage from Hurricane Ida earlier this year.
The couple had previously rebuilt their home in Pearl River, Louisiana, following the devastation Hurricane Katrina left in 2005, and it took them a year to recover.
“Before John got really sick, he said, ‘Honey, I know you love the beer cans much as I do, but if it gets to where you need to sell the beer cans to survive, you go do it. That’s why they’re on the market,” Luverne said. “Maybe they’ll help me – if I get enough. It’ll help me put a roof over the top of this house.”
“When I met John, he had a little bar, down at the end by the bayou here in Pearl River. He was collecting beer bottles, but that didn’t turn out too good. He still collected them, and then he started collecting the cans,” Luverne recalled. “When he started, he did not stop, he just kept going, and it kept getting bigger and bigger in my house.”
“He loved it. His little beer can collection. People would go all over the place and bring in beer cans back from Germany and all over,” she continued. “He just thought it was awesome to have something that nobody else had around here. We talked about it quite a bit.”
Some of Luverne’s fondest memories of John are of him ordering beer cans on eBay or their trips to beer can shows throughout the country.
There’s more than 3,000 beer cans in John’s collection, but the local auctioneer that Luverne has hired is starting off with a fraction of what’s available.
David J. Goldberg from Appraisal Group USA listed “approximately 2,500” of the beer cans on EstateSales.Net, which he’s titled as a “Life-Time Beer Can Collection.”
…He noted that John’s decades-old collection includes rare beer cans from breweries around the U.S. and abroad.
…Over in Pearl River Luverne is prepping the cans for auction. While the emotional toll of parting ways with John’s collection proves to be difficult, she said she has her family and church to support her.
The memories she has of her late husband also serve as a source of comfort.
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