Bus driver blazed a trail for women
Son, daughter carried on the ‘family legacy’
When Kathleen Andrews became Edmonton’s first female bus driver in 1975, there were no female bathrooms in the bus depots and no radios on any of the buses.
So Andrews carried a dime in her pocket for emergency calls in phone booths, used the male manager’s private bathroom and picked up the tradition of waving to other passing bus drivers as a signal she was safe.
She faced drunken louts trying to pick her up, male colleagues who questioned her ability to drive and passengers who refused to get onto her bus because she was a woman driver. But Andrews stuck it out behind the steering wheel for three years before moving up the ranks, becoming a pioneer at Edmonton Transit Services while working to bring in a stable income for her two children.
Andrews, 73, died Nov. 17 after a short fight with lung cancer. Instead of an obituary, her family and friends put up posters in transit garages and notified people through social media.
“It was a perfect job for women,” said Daphne Cove, who followed in Andrews’ footsteps as the fourth woman — and another single mother — working for the Edmonton Transit System in 1975. “Transit saved a lot of women.”
Andrews had been making $3 an hour working as a bus information clerk. When she became a bus driver, Andrews started at an hourly wage more than double that at $7.50, on par with men.
“It was equal pay and that was something that wasn’t happening back then,” Cove said.
“If they can do it, I can do it. I need to raise my kids and my house and give them a good life,” Lisa Andrews remembers her mother saying
“She was a divorcee,” Lisa said. “Back in the 1970s, divorce was kind of a sin. Oh my gosh.”
To keep the family house, Andrews had to have a man — her father — co-sign the mortgage. Lisa remembers being teased at school for having a single mother and getting into fist fights. Andrews even got a German shepherd, named Shilo, to protect the family home from vandalism over the issue.
Forging into the maledominated bus-driving field wasn’t easy.
“She received a lot of pushback, even from the public,” Lisa said. “A lot of people said, ‘You’re taking jobs away from men.’ ”
Once, when on a latenight bus route, Andrews was confronted by a female passenger.
“If you knew what was best for your children, you would be at home looking after them,” the woman said.
After Andrews explained her wish to provide a better life for her children — Lisa and her older brother Brad were cared for by Nana, Andrews’ mother, during late shifts — the woman became Andrews’ friend and brought coffee and sandwiches to the bus route.
After three years behind the wheel, Andrews became the first female dispatcher, a job that gave her more normal hours and weekends off.
Eventually, she became the first woman in charge of special charter buses, staying with Edmonton Transit Services until her retirement in 1998.
Even then, A nd rews couldn’t give up her love of bus driving. She began driving elementary and junior high students in a school bus in the mornings.
“She absolutely loved her kids,” Cove said, especially one little boy who would remind her every week: “If you get lost, I can tell you how to get to my house.”
The kids also loved her, Lisa said, even though her mother remained a stickler for manners.
“Mom, being the proper English lady, wouldn’t take any crap,” Lisa said.
Andrews moved to Canada from England as a 14-yearold girl, taking a three-day overseas ride on the Queen Mary, then a train to Edmonton. Her English accent stuck.
“If the children misbehaved, they were moved to the front of the bus,” Lisa said. “She put regulations on the bus so they didn’t go nuts.”
Andrews still liked “a spot of tea” and was a Coronation Street fan. But she was also an adventurer, scuba diving in Hubbles Lake, snorkelling more recently in Mexico and the Cayman Islands, and golfing any chance she could with her husband, Albert Shillingford, whom she married in 1997. Andrews was a fan of karaoke, belting out 1960s and ’70s rock tunes with her transit friends, Cove said.
She was also terribly proud that both her son and daughter became bus drivers, Lisa more recently after pursuing TV broadcasting, brother Brad retiring after 27 years in the business.
“It’s kind of a family legacy,” Lisa said.