A family name that put Kewanee on the map for Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners across America is coming down after 77 years as Dennie and Scott Packee have announced the sale of the legendary business is being finalized with Walters Brothers Harley-Davidson, of Peoria. The store, at 623 N. Main St., is now closed but should reopen soon under the Walters Brothers name.
According to Scott Packee, it was a number of things that led him and his father to the decision that it was time to sell the business after 26 years.
“We bought a bass boat four years ago, right before COVID, and had never used it,” he explained. “Back in June I decided to take my sons (Ronan, 11 and Torin, 7) fishing. We were literally on the road headed for Kewanee when I said ‘Hey. Let’s call Grandpa.’ He picked up the phone, said ’Sure,’ and that day we all went fishing.”
Scott had sold a chain of six car washes he opened in March and Dennie celebrated his 80th birthday in January. As he reached that milestone, while still “one of the hardest working men in Kewanee,” as Scott puts it, Dennie had been mulling over for some time what to do with the motorcycle business Henry “Hank” Reiman had steered his way just before he died in 1998.
“It took that fishing trip to decide that maybe it was time that we do things a little different,” said Scott.
Ownership of Reiman’s Harley-Davidson came to Dennie Packee in a roundabout way.
In 1947, Hank Reiman moved his wife, Mary, and two children, Roger and Shirley, to Kewanee from Wisconsin where he had worked in a pulp mill while he made a reputation in hill-climbing motorcycle races on Harley-Davidson bikes and was the 1946 national champion.
Harley-Davidson then offered him the choice of two dealerships in Illinois — Kewanee and Canton. According to Dennie, Hank picked Kewanee because of its many factories and more population, at the time, than Canton. He purchased a building at 205 E. Third St., opposite the Walworth factory, and went into business selling and servicing motorcycles as Kewanee Harley-Davidson.
In 1954 he moved the shop to 623 N. Main St., where he expanded his residence to include the business. The building on East Third Street was later occupied by the Foreign Service Club and now serves as a storage space for Cookie’s Gaming Parlor and Lounge in the south end of the building.
Around 1960 the name was changed to Reiman’s Harley-Davidson, which may have been a smart marketing decision as his son, Roger, had developed a national reputation on the racing circuit and the name was becoming well-known among loyal Harley owners.
Dennie became best friends with Roger in high school, while young Reiman, a 1956 graduate of Kewanee High School and six years his senior, was working as an apprentice in Dennie’s father, Willie Bryner’s machine shop. The two young men had each other’s back through good and bad times.
Roger had been riding motorcycles since he was 9 years old, his age when the family moved to Kewanee. In 1957 he began a meteoric racing career that would lead him to become the American Motorcycle Association’s National Grand Champion in 1964. Earning the necessary points in the last race of the season in Gardena, Calif., Reiman came home to a hero’s welcome. Met at the train station by the Black Knights Drum & Bugle Corps, along with a large gathering of fans, friends and family, he was feted at a banquet in the ballroom of the Hotel Kewanee attended by Walter Davidson, Jr., son of the company’s co-founder.
In 1970, Roger began scaling back his racing career to devote more time to the family business. It wouldn’t be long before he made the acquaintance of motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel.
According to Dennie, AMF Corporation, which had just acquired Harley-Davidson, was asked by Knievel to find him a good head mechanic. They pointed him toward Roger Reiman who had developed a reputation on the racing circuit for having the most number of parts on his motorcycle that he started the race with than any of his competitors.
Knievel trailered his bikes to Kewanee after one of his famous jumps over cars, buses or canyons and Roger and Hank would get them back in shape for the next attempt. Their arrangement went on for more than 20 years during which time Knievel became a part of the Reiman family.
While his colorful semi was often seen behind Reiman’s shop, many have wondered over the years how often the world famous stunt rider was actually in Kewanee. Dennie Packee said he stopped here from time to time, but “flew under the radar,” to avoid attention.
One night, Dennie recalls, he had taken Knievel to a local bar “to wet their whistles” when a man came in and excitedly announced that Evil Knievel must be in town since his truck is parked behind Reiman’s. The man didn’t know the guy sitting next to him at the bar was the man himself.
The Reiman family’s world took a tragic and course-altering turn on March 4, 1997 when Roger was killed in an accident while taking practice laps for a legends race at the Daytona Speedway in Florida. The racing world mourned and Kewanee mourned with it over a man they had come to love and respect. A cortege of over 300 motorcycles rolled through Kewanee on the day of his funeral.
His son’s unexpected death stunned Hank Reiman most of all. His wife and business partner, Mary, had died in 1991 and Roger and his sister, Shirley, were all he had left…and now the heir apparent of the Reiman name was gone.
Dennie said he kept checking on Hank, who by now was in a wheelchair and failing health. By the following year he had sought and found a new owner for the business but it meant it would no longer bear the Reiman’s name and probably leave Kewanee.
He approached Dennie about taking it over but he declined. He was operating a successful used auto parts business near Osceola at the time. Dennie recalls visiting Hank one evening to find that he hadn’t torn up the contract with the out-of-town buyer and once again leaned on Dennie who again respectfully declined. A few days later, Dennie remembers, he got a phone call from the head office of Harley-Davidson telling he was the new owner of Reiman’s Harley-Davidson. Dennie agreed to the deal and took over where Hank and Roger left off.
He said the reason the Reiman name will not continue with the new owner is because of a promise he made to Hank, who died on Dec. 31, 1998. “He said the name dies with you,” Dennie said, indicating that he was “willed” the use of the name for as long as he owned the business.
“It was his wish and we have honored it,” Dennie said.
Also a generational motorcycle business with a long history and outstanding reputation of its own, Walters Brothers, the new owner, was founded by brothers Bruce and Bob Walters who, according to the company website, opened a motorcycle and bicycle shop in Galesburg in 1921.
The following year they became a Harley-Davidson dealer. In 1931 Bruce moved to Peoria where he purchased the H-D dealership. In 1979, Wayne Wiebler, who began as an apprentice under Bruce at age 14 and now an adult. assumed ownership. Today he is joined by sons Stephen and Stann as well as several grandchildren in operating the business which still bears the Walters Brothers name.
According to its website, the dealership has won multiple awards for excellence in customer service and is recognized as one of the top Harley-Davidson Motor Co. dealers.
Dennie and Scott Packee both agree they are very happy, and somewhat relieved, that they are turning the business over to a family operation, and one which is well known among Harley owners.
As for the father and sons Packee, Scott is still involved in The Stables event center south of town and the Revolution Coffee Co., in collaboration with Tony Segura. He said he is “considering several options,” and left it at that for now.
In addition to more fishing trips with his son and grandsons, Dennie says he will have plenty to keep him busy sorting through decades of Harley-Davidson and other memorabilia he has accumulated over the years. He is also sure wife, Dianne, will continue to find plenty of things for him to do.
“There’s one thing I know for sure,” he said, “I won’t be lacking for things to do.”
