Dorothy Ebanks-Rowe made history as the first female driver for the former Jamaica Omnibus Service. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Sacha Walters, Staff Reporter

Before 1969, a female bus driver was unheard of in Jamaica, but Dorothy Ebanks-Rowe soon changed that.

Ebanks-Rowe became the odd woman on the block when she got a job as the first female bus driver of the Jamaica Omnibus Service.

She saw the vacancy in the newspaper and applied as it never specified a particular sex.

"I didn't think it was odd but other people, they were shocked," she said. "They said I couldn't drive a bus so don't bother with it. I tell them that anything the men can do, I can do it too." Something which she proved long before she applied for the job.

"I used to drive a minibus and sometimes a truck, delivering food stuff from St. Elizabeth," Mrs. Ebanks-Rowe, now 70, said.

Her tenacity grew out of her upbringing. With 12 siblings, growing up in St. Elizabeth, she had to work to help support her family.

Ebanks-Rowe never dreamed of a specific career, she just knew she had to get a job.

Nurse's aid

Her parents were only able to afford to see her through to sixth standard so the girl from Little Park in St. Elizabeth, went to England to work as a nurse's aid.

There, she got her driver's licence at 18, got married and had four children. However, some years later, she left England for Jamaica where her driving skills came in handy after she separated from her husband.

She did deliveries and eventually applied for the post as bus driver.

When she arrived for the interview, everyone but the interviewer was surprised.

"I was the only woman there among about 20 men," she said.

"When we were going up the stairs, all the workers stopped work and came to look because they heard that a woman was coming for an interview."

After the interview, all the applicants boarded a bus to do the driving test. She was successful and with as much ease as she had applied, she started her first day.

"They crowded the bus even long after I was driving and the novelty wore off. Especially the schoolchildren, they don't wait for any other bus besides me," she said.

It was not until after she had started the job that her family knew she had applied for the job.

"When I leave St. Elizabeth, nobody knew until they heard from passengers who saw the photograph in the bus," she said.

She remained with the company for six years and not only created history, but found love.

Second husband

She met her second husband, a driving instructor, at the company.

After leaving the company, she drove a taxi and eventually went back into deliveries which she does until today.

"Anytime I feel that I can't do it myself, I will just not bother with it. Nobody is going to do my job."