#Gully transportation dispatch drivers#
#Gully transportation dispatch driver#

His father stated he suspected that was coming and told him he could make that decision himself. When summer came to its end Bill spoke to his father about his desire to continue driving, rather than return to school to be a senior. That trip would begin his lifelong career in trucking. The Road Boss went out in the shop and asked him if he could take a load to Indianapolis.

#Gully transportation dispatch driver#

In the summer of 1944, before he even turned 17, the Road Boss (as the manager of the Relay Terminal was referred to then) was without a driver to take a load from Barry to Indianapolis. While the legal driving age to drive Interstate (out of state, for example between IL and MO) was 21, the war efforts provided Bill the opportunity to start driving. In 1944, during World War II, the country was experiencing a crucial driver shortage. Initially Bill fixed tires, serviced and washed the Knaus trucks. At age 16 Bill went to work part-time after school, on weekends, and summers for Knaus Truck Line at its Barry Driver Relay shop in Barry, IL. Wimpy Skillman in particular mentored and took Bill most frequently.

#Gully transportation dispatch drivers#

The drivers that he rode with started teaching and letting Bill drive during the trip when he was only 14-15 years old. On weekends Bill would frequently make the trip from Barry to Chicago and return with his brother or one of the other Riss drivers. In 1939 his brother Lloyd became a road driver for Riss & Company who had opened a Relay Terminal in Barry for its trucks operating between Kansas City and Chicago, IL. As a boy Bill frequently made the trip with one of them. His father and older brothers had trucked hauling livestock from the Barry area to the Stockyards in East St. In addition to the rock quarry experience Bill was attracted to trucks, trucking, and in particular driving. When Bill was 14 years old he drove a gravel truck in the summer for Missouri Gravel at its rock quarry near Barry, on the plant property, as the rock was mined from the pit to the rock crusher. Considering the hard times of farming in the depression, his father put all of the children to physical work on the farm at young ages. His father farmed, trucked livestock, and worked various jobs to try to make ends meet. Bill grew up in the Depression era of hard times. Later when his father remarried at age 11 he went to live with his oldest brother by 10 years, Lloyd. He was raised by his father with the help of his grandmother, Flotilla 'Tilly' Loyd. His mother Mary Florine died one week after Bill's birth. Bill was born in 1927, in El Dara, IL to Joseph Ralph Gully and Mary Florine Gully (Loyd).

Vincent's Nursing Home in Quincy, IL at approximately 1:45 AM. William 'Bill' Marion Gully, 91, of Quincy, IL took his last dispatch that was an expedited trip to HEAVEN to join his Lord and Savior for eternal peace in paradise.