Every once in a while, a particularly special person blesses a community with their presence and leaves a lasting impact like none other could. Here at Missouri State University, we were blessed in the form of Georgia Perkins, a shuttle driver who always went above and beyond for the students she transported.
For the five years, we were lucky enough to have her, her presence brought light, humor, and sage advice to all who rode with her, day or night. She was everyone's favorite, for many reasons beyond just her skill as a driver. Some of her favorite students and regulars would call her "G", others referred to her as "Grandma Georgia" both because she was a grandmother and because she embodied the persona of a good one with every essence of her being.
Even people who had never been on her route had heard stories and kind words about Georgia, she was a local legend among students at Missouri State. Georgia was so well known by so many in part because of her work ethic. She had only been with us a little less than five years, but she worked almost every day and would work double shifts on nights when students were downtown in larger quantities, be it for events or for their average weekends of going out and about.
She drove two different routes, Pink and Maroon North, and at almost any given time when the shuttles for those routes were going, you could safely assume that Georgia's would be the face you'd when that shuttle door opened up. She always greeted people coming on to the shuttle, whether it was with a smile or a hello or jumping right into a story after asking you where you were headed.
She'd help students learn the different routes and times so they would know when and where to be to get picked up by the right driver on the right route to get where they needed to go. Georgia passed away August 24, 2018, at 74 years old, due to a sudden health complication, thought to have been a blood clot in her lungs.
The news was first broken via twitter by J. Howard Fisk Limousines, Inc. the company that owns and operates the Bear Line shuttles here at the university. The university then announced it formally on their website and official social media pages the next day, sharing the short but kind statement J. Howard Fisk Limousines, Inc. had posted the night before, along with their own sentiments about how much we all would and do miss her.
When I first met Georgia, it was my first time ever riding the Bear Line. It was a cold night in November during my freshman year, and I was heading downtown for Springfield's First Friday ArtWalk. My friends and I decided it was too cold to walk and the closest of us was still parked too far away to justify heading across campus to the car, so we waited for the Bear Line instead.
Despite my shivering, the second I stepped onto the shuttle my night was brightened by Georgia's enthusiastic smile and asking us exactly where we were headed. I told her "downtown," and she looked at me and said, "I assumed that much but WHERE downtown?" Every time kids headed out for the night, she would make sure they were dropped off as close to where they were headed as possible, and she always made sure to pick them up promptly from said places.
Whether you were just walking around shops and meeting at the designated stops, or you were heading to a club or bar, or to a concert downtown, Georgia made sure she knew where you were going and when to pick you up and was rarely there more than a couple minutes after closing time. She always made sure people got home safe, whether that was on campus or at apartment complexes near campus.
One friend of mine told me that there was a night she'd gotten out of a meeting really late, and when Georgia picked her up she asked where she needed to go, and drove her to her boyfriend's apartment rather than making her walk there from the designated shuttle stop on-campus.
Once she got there, Georgia waited until she saw my friend go up the stairs and got inside the apartment safely before driving off, making sure she'd gotten another student home safe. Georgia did this for students frequently, whether they regularly needed her to, or it was a unique circumstance that kept them out later than normal like it was for my friend.
Of course going above and beyond is wonderful and commendable in itself, but that was merely one aspect of the many things we love about who Georgia was. She was a wonderful conversationalist. She made the most mundane stories about her life and family and her grandchildren and their pets and even just a typical drive around her route into hilarious tales that left those listening chuckling and their days brightened.
Georgia loved to talk, but she never got annoying or repeated herself too frequently. Sure, if you rode her shuttle several times a day you'd hear the same stories a few times over, but they were always just as interesting the next time. But it wasn't just The Georgia Show when she would drive, she would strike up a two-sided conversation about anything with anyone who wanted to talk to her, small talk or deep conversations.
I've had a few of my friends just sit on the Bear Line around multiple routes just chatting up a storm with Georgia because they adored her so much. Georgia had jokes to tell, as well. She loved simple puns and clever one-liners, especially, presumably because she could easily tell multiple to people before they left her shuttle to carry on with their days or evenings.
During summers, Georgia worked in Alaska as a tour bus driver, and loved that job, but was planning on retiring from it next year to spend more time with her family during the summers. It makes my heart warm to know that Missouri State University students weren't the only ones who got blessed with Georgia's light during what would otherwise be potentially tedious activities.
When asked about her summer job by one of my friends, Georgia told her "If you ever want something simple and fun to do, go to funjobs.com, that's where I got my job in Alaska, and it is fun." and then in natural Georgia fashion fired off her favorite Alaska-related joke: "Do you know what the scariest wild animal is? It's a cari-BOO!"
Georgia not only loved her job, but she loved the students she did the job for. I mentioned that people would go out of their way to ride her Route on any given day just to talk to her, but it went beyond that. Georgia was friends with a lot of students and would talk about all sorts of things with them, or even just let them vent their school frustrations to her as surely as she'd give her commentary on Springfield natives' poor driving skills.
Those regulars that Georgia had riding with her, especially those who lived off-campus but regularly headed home late, were some of the people she knew the best, and she had many of their cell phone numbers so she could know when she was needed to pick them up or drop them off. Students would text her on any given night and between cycles of her route, she would check to see who she would need to go out of her way to get a safe ride somewhere near campus for.
Her dedication to students and their safety was absolutely heartwarming in so many ways, she did more than just her job, she actually cared for them. She also cared for students' comfort, especially on rainy days. Georgia was known for stockpiling cheap umbrellas from garage sales and thrift stores and checking the forecast regularly so that on days it would rain, she could stash several on the Bear Line for students who had forgotten or lost or never had umbrellas to take with them for the day or permanently.
It was such a simple gesture, but it's something that meant the world to students on those days time and time again. In every fiber of her being, Georgia was a caring, grandmotherly type, so it's only natural that she was such a favorite of so many people.
Tonight, as I thought I was finishing this piece, I was talking about Georgia with the night host in my residence hall, who happens to also be one of my dear friends and a wonderful conversationalist, and she told me this: "Beyond just being a bus driver, Georgia Perkins was an institution.
Here at Missouri State University, we don't have many lasting institutions. You mention our name and people think of our mascot or potentially of some time they saw us fleetingly in the news, or our students think of some random thing they associate the school with. If you mention the Bear Line, or our nightlife, or transportation, however, people immediately associate all of those with Georgia. People tell stories about Georgia and no one has to ask who they're talking about or why it's relevant, they just know. Georgia was an institution at MSU through and through."
I heard and drafted and threw away many attempts, to sum up, her importance and essence in a concise way, but none compared to the above statement because none were as true or as eloquent. Our culture at this university was built up in a large part around the institution that was Georgia and her driving and her stories and her essence.
To us students, Georgia was such a wonderful part of living on or near campus and of attending Missouri State University. To her family and friends, I'm positive she was even more. I don't feasibly see an aspect of her life or an encounter she had with anyone throughout it where Georgia wouldn't have made everything so much better than it was before simply by existing in it.
As a bus and campus shuttle driver, Georgia heard many thousands of "Thank you"s in her life for transporting people, out of obligation or out of genuine kindness, but as a person who cared so much about so many people, she received just as many, much more heartfelt displays of thanks. This tribute is one of them.
Thank you, Georgia Perkins, thank you for giving your all to us time and time again, thank you for all the little things that made our days bright, thank you for giving us the best stories and jokes to retell to each other again and again, thank you for everything you did for me, for my school, and for my community. Thank you for existing and being such a light. Thank you a million times over. Thank you for being you.
