Elzear Duquette was a middle child born on a farm in Mirabel in 1910 who devoted his life to becoming a lovable oddball by pulling a coffin around the world.Duquette would go to far-away lands and pull the coffin all day and then sleep in it at night, also using it as a bathroom and a place to watch a little portable television.
He once pulled that sucker for seven years straight throughout Japan and other points east, returning for Jean Baptiste Day in 1976.He felt wounded when celebration organizers didn't honour his accomplishments in their events.
Nonetheless author Micheline La France wrote a book about his exploits at that time called Elzéar Duquette Sur Les Routes Du Monde. En Cercueil Roulant. You can borrow it at the BANQ library on Berri or get it used for about eight bucks.
Duquette would walk right into crowded towns with his flag-festooned death vessel, going right in front of the most heavily-trod areas of touristic Paris and park his coffin for all to see. \
He told reporters that in spite of his fearless voyages, he still had no clue how to read a map.
What reaction people had to the ghoulish cart remains unclear.
One La Presse writer asked him why he did it and he rambled on that he had "too much freedom in his heart." Although he also conceded that if he had worked in a regular job "he probably would have liked it."He also said that he has to "fight the temptation to make friends" in the places he visits, as making such connections would "make him regret leaving."
Duquette was aged around 68 when he finally stopped pulling the infernal contraption and lived in St. Sulpice, 45 minutes from downtown Montreal with his dogs and cats.
One day a fire hit his building and he got out but then sought to rescue his cats and was found dead in the blaze along with one of the kitties he was hoping to save.
Duquette died by fire at 1485A Notre Dame on 6 Feb. 1988.
Quebecer Jean Beliveau more recently walked around the world in a similar fashion, although minus the coffin. He too became a hermit after returning, living in the woods with no running water.