Wendee Morrissey recently retired as a bus driver after 35 years
By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Thursday, February 4th, 2021 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
BAKER CITY – Wendee Morrissey has been highlighted in the most recent addition of Bulldog Pride, a newsletter produced by the Baker School District. Morrissey recently retired as a school bus driver with the district after 35 years.
The article, written by Lisa Britton with the Baker School District is as follows:
“Wendee Morrissey started driving a school bus when CB radios were the standard way to communicate. “From CBs to cell phones,” she says with a grin. “I wish I knew how many miles I’ve driven. Close to a million or more probably.”
Morrissey retired Jan. 1, 2021 after 35 years of driving a school bus for the Baker School District. Of those, 29 years were full-time. Although officially retired, she is finishing out this school year — and what a year it has been with increased sanitation measures, mask wearing, and no sports trips due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“A whole lot different,” she said.
Morrissey grew up in the Keating area, and well remembers her own bus drivers: Earl Flint, Lucy Love, and Bev Staten.
She graduated from Baker High School in 1982 and began her job with the district in 1985 when the need arose for a driver in the Keating area.
Morrissey lives near Medical Springs, and keeps the bus at her home. Her day starts at 5:30 a.m. when she heads out to collect students. In town, she shuttles students from Baker Middle School to Baker High School throughout the day, then delivers students home at the end of the day.
She’s seen a lot of children grow up during her years of driving a bus. “I’m on the third generation of kids,” she said. “I went to school with their grandparents.” When asked about some favorite memories, Morrissey pauses as she shifts through 35 years of bus rides. The first she mentions is not a happy memory, exactly, but one that she’ll always remember.
She’d taken the tennis team to Pendleton, and was reading her book in the bus during the matches. She was parked near the river.
“I look up and there’s a little kid, maybe 3, walking down the road by himself,” she said.
She couldn’t see any adults nearby, and the little boy veered of the road toward the river.
With a thought of “this is not good,” Morrissey left the bus and went after the child. She talked to him and, started walking him back down the road. “Here comes mom down the road and she says ‘Oh thank God!’ It was scary, but I felt I was in the right spot at the right time,” she said.
Bus drivers see all types of weather, and the worst trip she can recall was to Milton-Freewater. They left early for an all-day wrestling tournament. The road conditions weren’t great.
We were chained from Baker,” she said.
The freeway was closed at La Grande, so she pulled in to the Oregon State Police parking lot. Just as she prepared to head home, an OSP trooper ran out to tell her the freeway was open.
“We went over the mountain. Then the roads closed,” she said.
The freeway opened before they headed home that evening.
It was a long night.
“We came home at 10 miles an hour,” she said. “It ended up being a 23 and a half hour day.”
Growing up, she remembers the special treats from her bus drivers. On her own route, she’s carried on the tradition. In the early 1990s, she treated her riders to McDonalds on the last day of school. These days her end-of-school gifts might be a brownie from The Little Pig. “I’ve had a wonderful group of kids in the Keating valley,” she said.”
