By Ralphine Major

ralphine3@

yahoo.com

I often wonder what it is that draws younger generations to continue working in a family business such as the McGinnis Bus Lines.

In the mid-1920s James A. McGinnis started the McGinnis Bus Lines with his very first school bus. Upon his death, his son, Joe P. McGinnis, took over the bus contracts and continued the service until his passing in 1985. After Joe’s death, his wife ran the buses until she passed away in 1990. The next generation of the McGinnis family was Dr. Perry McGinnis. Perry lived out of town as his outstanding career had taken him to Memphis, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. Perry and his wife, Carol, had two sons who had grown up in Memphis. Barron McGinnis lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Roland McGinnis lived in Dallas. But the bus contractors were required to live in Knox County, and both the third and fourth generations of the McGinnis family lived far from the rural roads that the McGinnis buses traveled. The upcoming final segment will share how the McGinnis family remarkably kept those big, yellow buses running while keeping the family business together.

Words of Faith: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 (KJV).