Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: After 40 years of service, Pima bus driver Nyla Ramsey drove her last bus route Thursday.
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – For the past 40 years, Nyla Ramsey has been in charge of our most precious cargo, driving a school bus for the Pima School District. And after four decades Ramsey is putting up her steering wheel to help care for her own great-grandson while she can still.
“Somebody said I’m trading 60 kids for one kid, and he’s a baby, so they said the 60 kids might be better than the one baby,” Ramsey said. “So, I don’t know. We’ll see . . . I was going to go until I was 80, but that would be two more years and I decided my little great-grandson needed a babysitter. So, I decided to do that.”
Lengthy service is in the family’s blood. Ramsey’s brother, Jerry Wayne Brown, taught woods class at Pima for 47 years before retiring in 2017. His retirement lasted only two years and he was back at work in 2019 when the school was in need. He stayed at the job until he fell ill after 50 years of work at Pima High School and died in January 2023.
Ramsey has seen generations pass through Pima’s halls, bussing former students’ children and grandchildren, and possibly, in one case, a family’s great-grandchild.
“I love the kids,” Ramsey said. “I’ve got some great kids on my bus. I’ve got little stinkers too, but the parents have all been really nice to me. I’ve worked with great people here. I’ve went through about five supervisors. So, yeah, it’s been good. It’s been a good experience.”
On Thursday, the last day of school, as Ramsey headed out on her last drive, the teachers stopped her in the middle of the street to present her with some flowers and a sign and to express their love and appreciation for her service for the past 40 years.
“It hasn’t been bad,” she said. “It’s been fun . . . My route is out in the country, so I like that.”
As Ramsey’s bus led the processional of busses with horns blaring, the teachers – as per usual custom – lined the street on that last day of school to say goodbye to the drivers and students for the summer. However, for the first time in four decades, Ramsey won’t look to return.
“It’s time,” she said.
