LAURINBURG — On Saturday, Dec. 12, the Scotland County Schools lost one of its own. But on Thursday morning, her impact on those she knew was made clear.
The Rev. Utha McLean, better known as Linda, got certified in 1974 to drive the buses for Scotland County and to honor her, along with her family, a parade of maintenance trucks and buses drove by her home.
“We’ve never really heard of a tribute like this,” said her daughter Whitney McLean, who is also a bus driver for the school system. “This is the first that they’re ever doing this so it’s extremely touching. It really shows how much they loved her.”
Linda drove bus No. 49 and Whitney said the bus was like her baby. It was on that bus that Linda greeted students from across the county almost every day of the week.
“People admired her, they really did,” Whitney said. “She touched a lot of lives around here in this county.”
Linda’s husband Fred added the amount of lives she touched has been overwhelming.
“That’s the thing that keeps breaking me up,” Fred said. “I know they loved her but I’ve been getting condolences from so many different areas and so many different people. It’s just unreal how loved she was and how many people knew her.”
Linda had been driving for SEarCH when she passed but filled in for Sycamore Lane, Wagram and Scotland High. Though she had driven throughout the county in her years.
“She had driven all four sections of the county — north, south, east, west,” Fred said. “She knew the county well …”
Since the pandemic Whitney and her mother got to join forces to bring meals to students, something Whitney has continued since her mother’s passing.
“We were like a mother-daughter duo,” Whitney said. “We’ve been together delivering the meals since we got out last year and they kept us together. I felt like no one would know the route we did in the Gibson area, they wouldn’t know who to feed, they wouldn’t know which house needed more meals than other …
“I felt like she would want me to keep going and working because she was that type,” Whitney added. “Anything happened in our family she kept working, she never stayed at home and she always wanted to keep moving.”
Frank added that his daughter is a “chip off the old block,” carrying on in a way similar to how her mother worked.
“She always looked out for everybody,” Fred said. “She never met a stranger. She could talk to anyone at any level, at any rank in life, whatever your status in life might have been she could communicate with you.”
Whitney added that even when she became a mother, she didn’t stop work thanks to the school district.
“I came in ‘85 and she told them she was going to have to go home because she didn’t have a babysitter but they told her ‘no don’t worry about it,’” Whitney said. “And they went under the best and loaded seat belts on the bus so she could put my car seat on it … no more than a year old riding behind her in my snowsuit.”
It was Linda too that encouraged Whitney to see if being a bus driver was something she would like to do as well.
“She asked me one time if I wanted to take the class and see how it works out so I went and passed the class,” Whitney said. “It’s kind of in my bloodline. He (Fred) started driving a bus when he was in high school.”
Whitney said that her mother always had a feel for children and they always gravitated towards her. During her life, Linda made sure that the students on her bus had everything they needed.
“We sponsored one of her early college kids right before they went to college,” Whitney said. “We supplied them with cleaning supplies, toiletries and hygienic products, we even supplied her with a monetary gift to keep her going in emergencies. She has also sponsored other kids if she felt like they needed something. She looked at every one of her kids to see what they needed.”
Fred added one thing that Linda always did was treat children equally.
“She treated them all the same to her they were all of equal value,” Fred said. “So what she did for one, it was nothing to do it for another one. She didn’t feel like it warranted any special treatment. They all warranted special treatment and that was what she brought to the table.”
Besides being a bus driver, Linda was a reverend for the AME Zion Church and was a pastor at Bethlehem AME Zion Church in Kipling, Davis Chapel AME Zion Church in Linden and Prospect AME Zion Church in Shannon.
Scotland County Schools Public Information Officer Meredith Bounds shared that it’s bus drivers like Linda who can make a difference in a student’s day.
“That first interaction with Scotland County Schools is often when that student steps foot on a bus,” Bounds said. “That interaction they have with that bus driver, in a lot of ways determines what kind of day they’re gonna have. People like Miss Linda saying ‘how are you doing babycakes’ or ‘how you doing ladybug’ or ‘what’s going on what can I help you with?’ That sets the tone and builds the relationship with students that will remember her kindness.”
Graveside service for Linda McLean will be held Sunday at 1 p.m. at Hillside Memorial Cemetery on North Wilkinson Drive in Laurinburg. Everyone in attendance is asked to wear a face mask and exercise social distancing. Quick’s Funeral Home in Bennettsville is serving the family.
Reach Katelin Gandee at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com. To support The Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/subscribe