Violet Reinelt rolled through 82 years of life. The pioneering transit worker passed away on July 31, leaving behind a legacy that rumbles around the streets and roads of the city.
Reinhelt (nee Ward) was originally from rural Alberta but moved to Prince George in the 1950s. She got her B.C. driver's license in 1960, and bitten by the driving bug she upgraded to a taxi license in 1968. In 1971 she got a job driving school bus on routes north of the city and she is still widely remembered by those who were kids on those runs.
It was during this initial foray into bus driving that she also learned how to push back the impositions on her profession. When she was unilaterally transferred by the school district's head office, a public campaign got her reinstated back on the northern routes.
In 1977 she not only took another public stand, she made history. The world was mourning the death of Elvis Presley the same week Reinelt became B.C.'s first female public transit driver outside of Vancouver.
Next she turned her confidence and taste for justice to labour relations. She was elected as the local drivers' shop steward for 20-plus years. She was part of establishing the first pension plan for local transit workers; she was part of the movement to bring in the Teamsters as the bargaining union for the transit workers.
Then, she shattered another historic wall shortly after her birthday in 1997. On May 15, that year, she turned 65 and the rules of the day dictated she be disqualified from service due to that age threshold. She fought the rule and won. She drove almost another year on her own terms.
Throughout these years, she was popular and appreciated by the public and coworkers alike. On her 65th birthday, the bus company held an impromptu parade through the downtown, with a commemorative banner on the back end of a bus. She was presented that day with a bus steering wheel mounted on a plaque.
Never far from her rural roots, she raised horses in Prince George long into her senior years. She also raised daughter Sherry and son Sonny, and enjoyed many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Her life will be celebrated on Saturday at Assman's Funeral Chapel starting at 10 a.m.
