I come from a railroad family. My great, great grandmother, both my
grandparents, my great, great aunt and uncle, and other family members all
worked for the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fe Railroad in Amarillo, Texas. As a little girl, my Grandfather would pick
up all of the grandkids, sometimes as many as seven, on Saturday mornings and
take us down to the depot to watch the trains come and go, giving him time to
keep in touch with all of his railroader friends. Because my Grandparents both worked for the
railroad, they had lifetime passes on the passenger rail systems before Amtrak
came into being. Based on that, we took
most of our vacations by rail. Those are
memories I will always cherish.
With my love of trains, it was only logical that Larry and I
should end up together. We met in 1986
and were married in 1990. When my
grandmother met him and he told her that he was a locomotive engineer, she
said, "Oh, you're the right kind of engineer." Larry hired on with the Southern Pacific
Railroad in 1977, was promoted to fireman status in 1984, and finally engineer
in 1986. He currently works for the
Union Pacific on the East Line from El Paso
to Vaughn, New Mexico. Admittedly, even coming from a railroad
family did not prepare me for life as an engineer's wife, since most of my
family had "regular" jobs.
Larry and I became more involved in union activities while
living in Tucumcari, New Mexico,
and during that time I began taking an active part in trying to do something
about the unsafe working conditions, fatigue, and other issues relating to
Larry's job, by writing my Congressman on the issue of limbo time -- new in
1996. This was before I knew that the
Auxiliary existed. Larry held the job of
Secretary/Treasurer for Division 588, and continues to be active in his current
Division 192 as Legislative Representative and President.
After we returned to El Paso
in 1997, we helped with the regional convention held here in October of that
year. When I was asked to be the GIA
Chairperson for the Southwest Convention, I decided I should probably join the
GIA. In February of the following year,
the El Paso Area Auxiliary 591 was born.
In October of 2000, because of the then-International Vice
President's resignation, a vacancy was left in the office of 2nd
Vice President and National Legislative Representative. International President Ruth Windham asked if
I would be interested in filling the position.
My first response was one of flattery in that she thought enough of me
to appoint me to such an important job within our organization. Then the reality set in of the daunting
responsibility I’d taken on, and I went
about the task of relearning how our government works. After all, it had been a couple of decades
since I took any civics classes. In
2001, I was elected to the office of 1st Vice President, and the
National Legislative Representative office was moved to that position. This was an important step in directing the
Auxiliary's legislative agenda because it was now a part of the Executive Council. In June of 2006, I was elected as the
National President of the Auxiliary.
I was born and raised in Amarillo,
Texas, and, with the exception of four
years in Tucumcari, New Mexico,
El Paso has been my home for 27
years. We have three children, Maricel;
Larry, Jr.; and Samantha Jo, our four-legged furry one. By trade I am a legal secretary, and also a
certified travel counselor. I have a
profound passion and love of the Auxiliary and I hope that together we can all
move it forward to truly make a difference in the lives of locomotive engineers
and trainmen and our members.