Joe Baxter of Franklin County, the first inductee to the state’s Bus Driver Hall of Fame, poses for a picture on Friday in Winchester, Tenn. Baxter drove the same bus, number 40, for 56 years without an accident. The bus pictured is bus 91, which replaced bus 40 on Baxter’s old route when the bus he drove aged beyond repair.Joe Baxter must have nerves of steel. Or maybe he’s hard of hearing. Either could be an advantage if you’re hauling 60 screaming grade-schoolers across a rural Tennessee county.
But Baxter did it every school day for 56 years.
Without an accident. And with a smile on his face.
That was enough for the Tennessee Association of Pupil Transportation to name him its first state Bus Driver Hall of Fame inductee.
Baxter, 82, parked his school bus — No. 40 — for the last time on Aug. 31, 2011. That ended his daily ritual of busing children to school each morning, returning to his farm in Winchester to work through the day, then setting off again to pick up the kids and take them home.