These six dedicated school bus drivers helped children get home safely.
It’s that time of year again, when kids board buses to get to school and motorists become annoyed at the traffic tie-ups the school buses cause.
Although driving a school bus is an awesome responsibility, it is not an all-day job. Drivers get behind the wheel in the morning, again in the afternoon, and occasionally after hours or on weekends to transport athletes, band members, choristers, and students going on field trips. Many drivers are farmers or housewives, who have plenty of work to keep them busy during the day, but need the extra income. Retired police, firefighters and truck drivers also find driving a school bus to be satisfying.
More school bus drivers died in the last few weeks than can be included in this report. Here are a few of the many who have helped our children get home safely.
School bus driver Cindy Lee (Papaz) Miller of Oxford, Massachusetts, spent the last decade of her life transporting special needs children. According to her obituary in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, she treated these children “like her own, singing songs with them, and buying them birthday and Christmas presents.”
“The children loved her.”
Listed along with family among her survivors are bus parent friends and bus children whom she loved.
Randall Lynn Townsend was a school bus driver for the Davis School District, “a job that Randy enjoyed very much,” according to his obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune. Also a bus driver for Trailways and UTA during his career, “Randy had always said that bus driving was in his blood.” Why? Because his “dad had driven tour buses in Yellowstone Park.”
Adele “Dell” Dorothy Schweers Hatcher of Dunnellon, Florida, attended night school and got her GED while working as a bus driver for Citrus County schools. After graduating, she “became a secretary for Citrus County Health Department, and then Citrus County Schools Transportation Department until retirement.” She and her husband, Jake, were also active supporters of the Dunnellon High School Athletic Department and “made many, many trips transporting athletes to events.” In 1969, they were selected as “Parents of the Year” for their contributions.
Affectionately known as “Jean the Bus Driver,” Emma Jean Beighton was a school bus driver for over 25 years and a Racine City Bus Driver before retiring as a dispatcher in 1991, according to her obituary in the Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press. Jean “enjoyed crocheting and spending many long hours touring the United States with her husband Lloyd on the back of their motorcycle.”
As a school bus driver for the Gadsden Independent School District in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Linda G. Aldaz “was well known for her big smile and wave.” She was also “the lady with the sunglasses,” according to her obituary in the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Retired police captain Franklyn A. Grower Jr. drove a school bus “for the Oneida City School District from 1970-94 and earned a record of 24 accident-free years,” according to his obit in the Oneida Daily Dispatch.
This post was contributed by Alana Baranick, a freelance obituary writer. She was the director of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers and chief author of Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers before she passed away in 2015.
