A longtime school bus driver received a heartwarming surprise from Star City School District in Arkansas when the transportation building was named after him.
Eighty-seven-year-old Brames Jackson has dedicated most of his life to serving his community in southeast Arkansas for decades. STN discovered a family connection when reaching out to Star City Transportation Director Kenneth Jackson. Brames is Kenneth’s uncle, and their story reveals a family legacy of outstanding student transportation service.
Brames Jackson became a school bus driver in 1964. He was on the district’s custodial staff, when he was asked to cover a route for a driver that was involved in a school bus crash. He shared that he continued to drive that bus for three months unpaid, simply to make sure that the students on the route got to school. The oversight was corrected, and he was officially put on the transportation payroll.
“When I got on that bus, I asked the Lord to take care of me and the children. And He did that. I didn’t want any child to get hurt and, I didn’t want to hurt any child,” said Brames.
He shared his entire 61-year-long career as a driver is accident free. The only maintenance he said he had was when he got a flat tire while on a route. He also shared that his route was often hard to navigate with lots of mud and rural roads. He proudly shared that he never got stuck, even during extreme weather conditions.
He relayed a story of waking up one day to snow but reported to work and drove his bus to the first stop on his route. The student informed him that she had just been told that school was cancelled due to the snow. For Brames, his focus was always dedication to the students, even in bad weather.
His nephew Kenneth Jackson said that his uncle has always been a source of inspiration to him. Kenneth began driving a school bus in 2009 and was made the transportation director in 2022, leading a fleet of 16 route buses and 22 drivers. Brames shared the advice he gave to Kenneth when he started in his new leadership role which was to focus on doing his job well and to connect with students and district staff. Those relationships with teachers, superintendents and other district leadership, the drivers and especially with the students are what create a lasting and positive impact.
A key mindset Kenneth said he shares with his uncle is the unwavering dedication to student safety, as students on the bus are “precious cargo.” As Brames said he sees the students as “pure gold” to their families and parents and that as student transporters, it’s crucial to see the students in the same way.
Both uncle and nephew said that they treat the students as if they were their own. Brames shared that he often sees adults who rode his school bus as young children and is happy to see them doing well in their lives. While he says he rode the school bus as a child and didn’t give his driver any trouble, he often encountered students having difficult behaviors. He stated that his goal was for students to not get taken off the route but rather address the behavior and keep them on the bus.
One day, Brames discovered a student smoking on board the bus. He told the student he would have to write him up, to which the student responded with a threat. Brames still took the boy to the office, despite the fact that he was armed with a knife.
Many years later, the former student approached Brames and hugged him. “’You made a man out of me. You don’t know how much I love you,’” Brames recalled the man told him. The boy had to go before the school board before he could ride the school bus again, but that moment was a turning point in his life. He later went to college, married a teacher and is successful in his work in the trucking industry.
“I felt like I helped that young man and I felt good over that,” said Brames.
The Arkansas Association of Pupil Transportation honored Brames as the 2025 School Bus Driver of the Year in June.
When Kenneth Jackson learned his uncle was retiring, he went to Superintendent Jordan Frizzell to ask if the school district would rename the transportation building after him. Kenneth said Frizzell enthusiastically accepted the idea and the district shared on its Facebook page last month that the Star City Board of Education officially named the transportation facility as the “Brames Jackson Transportation Building.”
“His commitment, integrity and care have made a lasting impact on generations of students and families,” said the post. “We are deeply thankful for his unwavering professionalism and the encouragement he offered to countless children through the years.”
When asked about his reaction to the news, Brames tearfully said, “I thank God. My nephew, the superintendent, I thank God for the school and the staff.”
Both true family men, Kenneth said that his uncle is well known for throwing the best family cookouts for the 4th of July. Brames, Kenneth continued, is a humble man who doesn’t like to draw attention to his achievements, including the adoption of multiple children over the course of his life.
Kenneth also stated that Brames is remaining active in his retirement as a full-time minister of a local church and president of the local usher board. He said that growing up with his uncle, he fondly remembers Brames’ favorite saying is “By the help of the good Lord.”
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