Ed Ray, Bus Driver During Kidnapping, Dies at 91 (Chowchilla, CA school bus in 1976)
Ed Ray, the California school bus driver who was hailed as a hero in 1976 for leading 26 children to safety after they were kidnapped and buried below ground in a truck trailer, died on Thursday at a nursing home in Chowchilla, Calif. He was 91.
His death was confirmed by his granddaughter Susan Ray.
The mass kidnapping prompted headlines and television coverage across the country.
It was late in the afternoon on July 15, 1976, when three armed men stopped Mr. Ray’s bus on a dusty road outside of Chowchilla, a farm town in central California, and forced him and his passengers — 19 girls and 7 boys, ages 5 to 14 — into two vans. Within an hour after the children had failed to come home from a summer-school excursion, an all-out search was under way. The school bus was found off the road and camouflaged with foliage.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/us/ed-ray-bus-driver-who-helped-save-kidnapped-children-dies-at-91.html
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