ROCHELLE — What do you remember about your school bus driver? If your parents worked, your bus driver might have been the first adult to wish you a good morning, the very first to ask you what happened at school today or the first to drive you someplace exciting for a field trip.

Ronda Threlkeld has worn all of those hats and a few others over the course of the 37 years she has driven a Rochelle school bus.

A single mother, Threlkeld earned her bus driver’s license in 1980 and got her feet wet subbing as an RTHS driver. Her daughter, Liz Mykrantz, had just started Kindergarten. 

“I subbed and drove to a lot of sporting events,” she said. “I was gone four or five nights a week.”  

When she married Roy Threlkeld he was home evenings with Liz and her brother, Jonathan.

In 1986, Ward Countryman hired her as a Rochelle Elementary School District driver on the recommendations of Denise McDermott and Betty Hensley. She replaced Ray McCaslin.

Threlkeld’s first route was Hillcrest kindergarten through eighth grade. She transported the three Harris kids and the Contreras clan (15 siblings). One might credit Threlkeld for playing a role in Ogle County Sheriff’s Deputy Nick Anaya’s success as a competitive runner.

“Nick was forever late for the bus, always running behind and waving for me to stop,” she recalled.

When driver Karna Gross moved, Threlkeld took over her route.

“When Red Bays retired I took over the Shangri La route and then once the intermodal facility was constructed my route became complicated by a lot of railroad tracks,” she said. “New routes were configured. I switched with Jane Elliott to take over the Lakeview and Southview routes.” 

By then, the two transportation departments had consolidated and as a result, Threlkeld was known by most Rochelle bus riders.

A swimming instructor with Marianne Swanson at Spring Lake for 16 years, Threlkeld recruited many of her riders for the Rochelle Rays Swim Team.  Remember those Harris kids from the Hillcrest route? Threlkeld eventually taught Buba Harris’ kids to swim as she has two generations of the Losoya and Horner families.

Over the course of nearly four decades, Threlkeld has worked for a number of transportation directors — Countryman, Dean Herrmann, Leroy Shoemaker, Richard Devore, Ralph Jungels, Larry Wing and now, Sherri Smith. 

As veterans, Threlkeld and Jo Watson began to train Rochelle bus drivers, including her sister, Karla Steder, who begins her 30th year behind the wheel this school year.

With fellow drivers as well as students, Threlkeld has formed some extraordinary bonds. She remembers Marilyn Springman fondly, chuckling at a memory of the day pigs began to fly.  

“There were three of us on the bus to Hillcrest coming up [IL Route] 251 when a pig flew out of a semi, splat, right in front of my bus,” she said. “Marilyn, coming from the other direction, saw it, too.” 

And then there was the streaker incident.

“I drove Terry Dickow’s students out to Skare Park for a picnic and since I lived right there,” she said. “I decided to run home to do a load of laundry while the kids enjoyed their outing. As I headed back, here comes Terry waving for me to hurry. He had unlocked and loaded all the kids on my bus. Apparently a woman came out of the park calling attention to herself. Terry noticed her state of undress. Alarmed, he took the kids out of harm’s way. Apparently she was under the influence of some sort.”

Threlkeld said on the ride home, she and Dickow talked with the kids about making good choices.  

As she reminisced about a lifetime behind the wheel, Threlkeld recalled the children she will never forget. 

“One young girl, told me I was more of a mother to her than anyone,” she said.

Since then, Threlkeld has been there for her every success; becoming an honorary grandma to the young woman’s daughters.

Other memorable riders include the Bruns brothers — Tim and Roger. 

“I will never forget Timothy,” she said. “The Bruns family lived in Kings. I took the boys home after my Hillcrest drop offs. One night, my bus emptied out in Hillcrest, so I headed south to the bus garage when Tim popped up laughing ‘hey!’.  Oh, he got me good!”

She said Roger Bruns has been the only child to ever hear Threlkeld utter an expletive. 

“We were northbound on IL 251 with two semis headed south,” she said. “Right before the curve, one decides to pass the other. I tried to negotiate that curve and determine how much I could lean into it without hitting the ditch.” 

Not surprisingly, the bus driver prevailed. According to retired social studies teacher Ellen White, Threlkeld could hold her own in metro traffic, too. 

“Once on a field trip in downtown Chicago, Ronda left us absolutely speechless as she whipped our bus into a parallel parking space between parked cars. It was just one fluid motion,” White said.