Chowchilla Memorial

Plaque Honors Bus Driver in 1976 Kidnapping

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This four-foot-high monument honors Ed Ray, the driver of the school bus that was hijacked with twenty-six children in Chowchilla, Madera County on July 15, 1976. The memorial can be found across the street from Chowchilla City Hall. [/caption]

As monuments to heroes go, this one is not overwhelming. It stands approximately three feet tall. It is located in a small, grassy area near the entrance to the fleet lot for the local school district. One can easily miss it on the first drive or walk by.

It’s a statue honoring Ed Ray (Frank Edward Ray), the driver of the Chowchilla school bus that was taken along with twenty-six children from that community on July 15, 1976.

Kidnappers believed to be inspired by a similar crime referenced in a Clint Eastwood movie, took the bus and buried it in a quarry lot in Livermore, Alameda County as they prepared to make ransom demands.

Ed and one of the older youth inside the bus, Michael Marshall, managed to dig out an air pathway to escape and then rescue the others.

All survived.

The kidnappers were convicted and did a lot of time in prison.

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Family members joined with area government leaders to dedicate the renaming of a park in Ed Ray’s honor on January 27, 2015—photo from video on the City of Chowchilla website  CityofChowchilla.org .   [/caption]

But the scars from that incident remained among many of the children who endured it well into adulthood. Some still live in Chowchilla.

The school district put up the monument honoring Ed Ray and the children on that bus in the years following the kidnapping. A park was renamed in his honor. He was forever seen as the hero who saved the children. He died in 2012.

Every year, around the anniversary of the kidnapping, one might find a retelling of the 1976 events on television or in the papers.

There’s little doubt that the event will once again be thrust into the national spotlight in July of 2026 when the fiftieth anniversary of the kidnapping will be marked.

One year after the kidnapping, Robert Goulet put out a disco song called Ballad of Chowchilla Ray that had, as the folks in the music business like to say, A limited run”.

“But old Ed Ray kept his cool that day.                                                                                                        
And he did everything they would say.                                                                                                          
Just one move and they would shoot away,                                                                                                
And one dead child was too much to pay.”
(Ballad of Chowchilla Ray, written by C. Nichols, R. Righetti, and K. Morill)