Hero bus driver Ed Ray, who saved kidnapped children in 1976, dies at 91

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY Daily News

Ray became lifelong friends with many of the 26 children he saved before dying from complications of cirrhosis of the liver

FRESNO, Calif. -- The nation called Ed Ray a hero when he led a terrified group of children to safety after they were kidnapped aboard their school bus and held underground for ransom in the summer of 1976.

But the unassuming bus driver from a dusty farm town in Central California never saw himself that way, even after news of the infamous Chowchilla kidnapping grabbed headlines and inspired a TV movie.

As for the 26 children he saved, Ray became their lifelong friend until he died Thursday at 91 from complications of cirrhosis of the liver.

"I remember him making me feel safe," said Jodi Medrano, who was 10 when three men hijacked the school bus and stashed the group in a hot, stuffy storage van in a rock quarry.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hero-bus-driver-ed-ray-saved-kidnapped-children-1976-dies-91-article-1.1081059#ixzz1vKiWxLEd


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hero-bus-driver-ed-ray-saved-kidnapped-children-1976-dies-91-article-1.1081059?localLinksEnabled=false

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Photo: http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1081090.1337411504!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/image.jpg
Merced Sun Star via AP

Frank Edward Ray, seen in 1992, stands next to the school bus he was driving in 1976 when three men hijacked it, kidnapped him and 26 students and buried them underground in Chowchilla, Calif. Ray engineered an escape and led all the children to safety.


Photo: http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1081092!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/image.jpg
Jim Palmer/AP
School bus driver Ed Ray is greeted on July 17, 1976 as he steps out of the Greyhound bus that returned him and the 26 school children home after their escape.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

1. gettin a little choked up here

Safe passage, Ed Ray

[Voice for Peace]

4. me too!

just reading about a good man, even apart from the history, somebody who "if you knew him, you loved him." That part got me.

[Brickbat]

2. I had never heard of this before. What a story, and what a great quote:

"I remember he actually got onto me because I swore," said Medrano, now 46. "Mr. Ray said, `you knock that off.' I thought, whenever we get home I will be in so much trouble. That's when I knew I was going home, because he made me have that hope."

[Cooley Hurd]

3. I remember the story! Wow...

Cross gently... and with the light, Ed Ray.

[etherealtruth]

5. I remember this story from my childhood

It was terrifying as a child .... I can't imagine what those children felt .... that man was a true hero!

[sofa king]

11. They used it to scare the crap out of us in 2nd grade.

That fall the "hide under the desk to save yourself from the nuclear attack" drills were replaced by "what to do if you're kidnapped and held underground in a bus" exercises.

I still remember the ditto sheet with the cutaway diagram of the vehicle underground.

[uppityperson]

6. I remember him. RIP to a true hero.

[Blue_Tires]

7. that's incredible...how did i never hear this story??

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. It sounds like something from "Dirty harry,"

but "Dirty Harry" came out several years earlier.

Dirty Harry

Scorpio kidnaps a school bus load of children and demands another ransom and a plane to leave the country. The mayor again insists on paying but Callahan instead pursues Scorpio without authorization, jumping onto the top of the bus from a railroad trestle. The killer flees into a nearby rock quarry, where he has a running gun battle with Callahan. Scorpio retreats until he takes a young boy sitting near a pond as a hostage.

BTW, if that picture is too creepy, please let me know, and I'll delete it. Either that or you can notify a mod. Thanks.

The movie is violent from end to end, but I really like Clint Eastwood. I have the film on tape. I ought to watch it again.

[treestar]

9. RIP

Wikipedia now says he was visited by some of the children he saved in the days before he died. Adults now, though, obviously.

[sabrina 1]

10. RIP he was a true hero. It's nice too that he remained friends with the children.

[guappo1]

12. HERO IS A BIG WORD

When it comes to Ed Ray it is not big enough. Remembering back to that story and with children of my own all I could think about was this man his bravery, few of us could match

[patricia92243]

13. What was the name of the movie about his event? I would like to rent it. n/t

[Mabus]

16. They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping

The ordeal was dramatized in the 1993 ABC-TV movie They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping (shown in the UK as Vanished Without a Trace) starring Karl Malden . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping#Media_coverage

[patricia92243]

17. Thanks.

[lunatica]

14. I remember that story so clearly

I was thinking about it recently. It was an amazing story. That was over 35 years ago.

[madrchsod]

15. i remember when that happened...

i read somewhere that you will be rewarded for your deeds and mr ray received his reward for the rest of his life. thank you frank.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. What a story that was.

I remember the whole thing vividly -- it was incredibly bizarre. Godspeed to a good man.