Butler County school honors bus driver of 51 years who is fighting cancer
BUTLER COUNTY, Neb. (KOLN) - On Sept. 30. Lyle walked toward the gravel road that he’s driven down for 51 years.
“I see a bus up here parked, and I figured they brought my bus to surprise me,” said Lyle Divis.
But Lyle was in for a bigger surprise than he thought.
“I’m looking and there’s buses all the way around the curb this way, and all the way up to that hill," Lyle said, welling up. “So I cried like a baby.”
The East Butler School District sent seven buses to greet their beloved driver at his home and to offer support.
“Once a tiger, always a tiger,” said Michael Eldridge, superintendent of East Butler Public Schools in Brainard. “And that’s truly how we operate here. We are family. We take care of each other."
Just like how Lyle took care of families for generations on his school bus.
“So he not only drove myself, my husband, all of our siblings to school and my kids - he also drove my grandpa where he needed to go to the cemetery on Memorial Day,” said Katie Fencl, a former passenger on Lyle’s bus who is all grown up now.
Lyle, who is 70 years old, also played with Katie’s father-in-law in the Math Sladky band for about a decade. At age 19, he played trumpet in Czech polka and waltz songs across the state.
“We’d play from the heart, and people could tell when they listened to our music," Lyle remembers. “I’d play for the pigs sometimes to keep up my embouchure, and they’d just perk their ears up and listen."
The farm kid would often practice when he was done with bus routes. Little did Lyle know what he signed up for when the superintendent hired him back then.
“He threw me the keys, and I looked up in the mirror and the bus was packed with kids,” Lyle said. “And I was on my own. There was no training or tests or nothing.”
The school trusted Lyle as a former student who grew up driving tractors through the Bohemian Alps.
“In all kinds of conditions, very dangerous conditions,” Lyle said. “It’s funny I’m alive because, well, you see the hills we’re in."
He recalls only one time when the roads were so icy that he started sliding down a steep hill backwards.
“And I yelled at the kids, ‘I have no control over this bus,’" Lyle remembers. “I couldn’t get enough momentum to climb the hills by Touhy, and the kids thought it was fun. And I said, ‘Are you crazy?’ I was just holding on for dear life."
At first, the school paid Lyle $100 to drive a kindergarten route. He soon took on another kindergarten route and eventually the main route.
But Lyle is familiar with the scope of the entire East Butler School District. Throughout his most recent route, he covered communities between Brainard, Dwight and Valparaiso.
Despite never having kids of his own, Lyle handed out candy bars, attended many weddings and is even a godfather to one of his passengers.
In fact, Lyle’s faith is incredibly important to him. He sings in the choir at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, and he’s cleaned the Loma Czech Catholic Shrine for 25 years.
“Sometimes I’d just go to the church and sing by myself," Lyle said.
Growing up near Loma, Lyle has been a member of the community for his entire life. His kids describe him as “stern, but very loyal” with a bus that was always clean.
“He was always one to stand up for a kid that was different or had trouble making friends. Lyle was their friend,” said James Kriz, a coach and teacher at East Butler Public Schools. “He’s a pillar in the community."
Lyle drove to countless school activities and made sure kids returned safely home.
Kathy Bohoc, a fifth and sixth grade teacher, remembers when her daughter first rode Lyle’s bus.
“And when she got on the bus, our little dog went with her,” laughed Kathy. “And then - I wrote this in her baby book - Lyle specifically said, ‘That’s okay to take a dog too.' So it was just not a big deal for Lyle, and he knew it was a big day for her."
He stopped driving the bus when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in spring. Lyle’s nurse called the East Butler superintendent this fall.
“The question was, ‘Mr. Eldridge, would you consider allowing the buses to come by Lyle’s house soon?‘“ Eldridge said. ”And I was like, ‘Of course.’ I didn’t even think about it.”
It was the perfect way to thank a beloved member of the “Tiger Family.”
“Like I have insurance under the school, and they never took it from me,” Lyle said. “They said, ‘We’ll do anything for you, Lyle.' So they treated me real good."
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