Obituary
In the care of Solemn OaksVernon Slocum, 84, of Maple Bend, died Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at home, four days before the buses went out for the new school year — the first September opening he has missed since 1968.
Vern was born January 30, 1942, in Maple Bend, to Elmer and Josephine Slocum, and grew up on the Cypress Road farm with three brothers and a hard opinion about which of them did the most work. He drove for Maple Bend Public Schools for thirty-eight years, route 4 for the last twenty-six of them, and he could tell you which houses on that route had a dog, which had a grandmother watching from the window, and which child needed a minute longer than the schedule allowed.
He learned every name in the first week, every year, and used them. Parents who rode his bus as children put their own children on it and got the same greeting they remembered. He kept a coffee can of quarters under the seat for kids who forgot lunch money, and never once mentioned it to anybody, which is how the school found out about it only after he retired.
Off the bus he was a Tigers man, a decent carpenter, and the person who plowed out half of Cypress Road every winter without being asked and without accepting gas money. He and Ardith were married fifty-four years. He liked the first week of September better than Christmas, and said so.
The family will meet you at the funeral home on Sunday. Bring a story about the bus. There are a great many of them, and Vern heard almost none.
He is survived by his wife of fifty-four years, Ardith; his daughters, Lynette (Craig) Toppen of Maple Bend and Suzanne Slocum of Grand Rapids; his son, Douglas (Kay) Slocum of Fremont; eleven grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and his brother, Earl Slocum of Grant.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his brothers, Wendell and Ray.