Celebrating Women's History Month Ella Francis Petitt “Miss Peggy”

When asked by the editor to write a piece for Women in History month I thought it would be easy. Until she asked me to write about my Aunt Peggy. You never really realize the importance someone has in the bigger picture when they are that close to your life every day. To me she was simply Aunt Peggy, to this county she was so much more. If I hadn’t realized that while I was young, it certainly became apparent in my older, supposedly wiser, years.

Her house was where I spent many a day with Memaw living right next door. I rode her bus often as a child, but trust I got into trouble just as easily as any other child did when we crossed the line on her level of patience. She was and still is a strong contributor for my realization that family is your foundation.

She made history as the first female bus driver in Bath County, her presence was a profound influence in more children than I believe even she knew. You don’t spend 40 years driving generations of a family to school every day and not leave a lasting impression. Peggy was extended family to more than she could ever count. Each success she celebrated with ‘her kids’ as hard as their blood family did, and sometimes, as can be the case harder. Ms. Peggy was the consistent in their lives when everything else might be falling apart.

Born in Fleming County she was raised with six other siblings her being the baby. Like her siblings she never graduated high school, but would go to get her GED when she was in her 40’s, an accomplishment she was proud of, and it became a way to show her children that having that education meant something, if she could do it they certainly could. But her work ethic wouldn’t let her simply be a bus driver. She worked as a house cleaner in several counties, did wallpapering and painting, worked in two grocery stores here in Sharpsburg and at one point co-owned a restaurant with my mother.

When dealt the diagnosis of colon cancer she used that same work ethic to fight and survive in the face of what many would have just conceded defeat. She would schedule her treatments around the first day of school, no matter what she would be on that bus, greeting her children with her playful tease and infectious smile. Sadly, she would not be on that bus the morning of what would have been her 40th year as a driver. The cancer, after a long fought battle of several years, would keep her from the one tradition she had made. The only thing that could keep her from being on that bus was death, and in the early morning hours of that day she left us.

I have never in my life seen such a turnout for one person at a funeral home, aside from Hollywood elite or political giants. They were standing for hours in a line outside the doors just to show respect to the person who had been an ever present in their lives, for many since their childhood. It was only then that I knew of exactly how amazing she was in life. I was blessed to call her my aunt, and even more blessed that so many loved her as much as I did.