Mrs. Elsie Davis, bus driver from 1961-1982, meets the new generation of school buses

More than 25 years after she retired as a Lapeer Community Schools bus driver, Mrs. Elsie Davis, 91, returned to the school bus garage for the year-end transportation department pot luck luncheon and was coaxed into sitting behind the wheel of one of the District’s new extended length buses.

It was just a photo opportunity and Mrs. Davis let another District bus driver give her a quick spin in the new bus.

Mrs. Davis began driving for the District about 1961 and retired about 1982 after 21 years of negotiating the rural roads of Lapeer County. At the luncheon, Mrs. Davis showed off a 1977 newspaper article written about her and her co-workers at the bus garage.

As for what Mrs. Davis thinks about the new generation of school buses?

“There’s been a lot of changes,” Mrs. Davis said. “This was a beautiful, long one.”

Among the changes are AM/FM radios, a bus intercom, automatic transmission and no manual door handle.

Mrs. Davis’s husband died in 1999. The couple helped raise 200 foster children.