Bedford County school bus driver hauling kids since 1959

Elvis Presley had seized the throne, John F. Kennedy was a year away from pursuing Camelot and central Virginia’s public schools were racially segregated when James Bryant first got behind the wheel of a Bedford County bus.

The driver performed his first run in 1959 at the school that currently houses Otter River Elementary in Goode, near parts of the county where he was born and raised.

At 75, he still is in the driver’s seat, greeting schoolchildren with a smile that has not faded through the decades.

“They are such wonderful kids,” said Bryant, of Forest. “I treat them with a lot of respect. … The little ones can get under your skin sometimes, but you can’t let them know that. You just got to keep smiling. But I just love them to death.”

The Bedford County School Board recently recognized Bryant for his years of service. Ryan Edwards, the school division’s spokesman, told board members that the state Department of Education does not track the state’s longest-serving bus driver.

However, Edwards said he was told Bryant is at least in the top two of most-seasoned drivers in the commonwealth.

Pat Whorley, transportation coordinator for Bedford County schools, said Bryant is “quite the staple” among the school system’s roughly 190 drivers. Even if he is under the weather he shows up for duty, offers to pick up students when buses break down and is willing to add runs aside from normal routes when needed, she said.

“He very rarely misses,” she said. “You can set your watch by him. He is as reliable as the day is long.”

For many years he drove buses on the side, working at a Bedford furniture store, the Lynchburg Foundry and as a licensed plumber. Now he is retired, but he can’t say goodbye to the driving position.

For 52 years, he has lived in his house with his wife, Hilda. He said he paid $2,500 on it and raised his two daughters and son in the house. School buses were a big part of the family’s life: his wife also drove a county bus for years.

Since drivers are often the first face of the school system that students see each day, Hilda said she and her husband embraced the importance of getting students to school safely and serving as a positive influence.

“I treated them like I would want somebody to treat my children and grandchildren,” she said, pointing out her husband does the same.

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