CROSBY, Minn. — Bus drivers are in high demand these days, with shortages across the country. And one driver in Crosby, Minnesota, has been filling the need for 45 years.
Mary Fletcher is a legend in Cuyuna Country transportation.
"I've been doing it for so long. It's just what I do," Fletcher said.
She's not exaggerating. She has been behind the wheel, getting kids safely to school, since October 1978 - and it all started because she agreed to be a substitute bus driver.
"Forty-five years ago, a guy in Emily wanted to know if I'd drive his bus for two weeks, because one of his drivers wanted to go hunt elk in Colorado," she said. "So I said, ‘Okay!’ But the only thing is, I'm still here after all this time."
"Amazing that she's continued to do this," said Josh Schiffler with Crosby-Ironton Transportation. "We always joke that, if you want to know something about families north of the Mississippi, you ask Mary.”
Fletcher said she has no plans to retire.
"As long as I pass my physical," Fletcher said. "I gotta keep an eye on all these kids and see what they do. I look in the paper every week at their honor roll, I look at their things, see what they're doing in school, I like that. But sometimes they're on the court report and I don't like that… A lot of times they ask me, ‘When are you going to retire, Mary?’ And I just tell them, ‘Not until you graduate!’ So they know they gotta have me for twelve years."
She plans to keep that promise, with more miles to cover and memories to make.
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