(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights barber and Columbia Primary School and Columbia Elementary School bus driver Flozell Daniels.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born Dec. 5, 1952 in Columbia.
Q: Where did you attend school?
A: I attended Marion Central High School.
Q: Where all have you lived?
A: I lived in Mississippi pretty much all my life. I moved to Chicago and Indianapolis for a couple of summers. When I got married, I moved to Bogalusa for about five years, then moved back to Columbia.
Q: Where do you work? Tell us about your job/company.
A: I worked offshore for about 38 years. When I retired, I really needed insurance so I started driving the school bus, which was a challenge at first. Although I had worked with men supervising, when I got with children it was a totally different atmosphere. I found myself going to bible study on Wednesday nights asking the church to pray for the bus and myself. But after the first year, I started understanding what I was dealing with with the children. I became friends with them and it turned out to be a good relationship between them and myself. This is my third year. I’m also a barber, and it works out well with my schedule. When I get off the bus at 8 in the morning, I go in to cut hair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., then go drive the bus and go back from 4 p.m. until 6. I love kids naturally, so it wasn’t a big deal being with children, but it was just so many of them. As I started having a relationship with them, they started to see that I cared about them and wasn’t just a bus driver. When they got on the bus in the morning and I’d say “Hey, good morning!” or the same thing when they got off. At first they didn’t know how to take that. Something I tried to teach with my boys is teaching them how to be gentlemen and having them let the girls get off the bus first. At first, they didn’t understand that either, but they learned how that’s how a gentleman is, letting a lady go first. Now if one of the boys tries to get off first, they tell them to sit down and let the young lady get off first. It’s a relationship that I’ve built with them to help them interact with me, then I started getting calls from parents telling me their kid said how nice the bus driver is to them. That inspired me to do it even more.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: Seeing the progress. From that first year up until now, I’ve seen kids progress in academics because I’d even help them with their homework. We had a few that would have to wait at their stop, and they would come ask me questions and I’d show them how to do it. If they had an adult at home, I’d tell them to make sure you have your mom, dad or sibling to help you with this. Last year, we started having a tutoring program at our church. I asked them if any of them had trouble with their classes and invited them to come to the tutoring program. It actually helped them to see that someone else cared about them academically, not just whether or not they were being bad on the bus.
Q: What was your first job?
A: I actually worked at New Orleans Furniture Factory for a few months.
Q: Who is the person who has been most influential in your life?
A: My dad, Hollis. He’s a hardworking man and taught me how to be a man. Spiritually, he always encouraged me to put God first in everything. Then he taught me to always try to be honest.
Q: If you had the chance to relive one day from your life, what day would you choose?
A: The day I got married. Looking back at it, that was the greatest day of my life because it changed my life. The person that I married really helped to mold me as a man.
Q: What is your spouse’s name? What does she do for a living?
A: Betty Daniels. She’s a cosmetologist; we work in the shop together.
Q: Do you have any children?
A: I have four children — Flozell Jr., Kevin, Todd and Kandice.
Q: If you could have anything for your last meal on earth, what would it be?
A: It would have to be my wife’s gumbo.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: Paris. One of our customers went and brought us a little cup back. I’ve had a few of my clients go and they said it’s a beautiful place.
Q: What hobbies/activities do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I love deer hunting. I prepare for it when it’s not deer season. Lately, I started doing some gardening.
Q: What do you enjoy most about living and working in Columbia and Marion County?
A: One of the best things I have about living in Marion County is the affiliation with my church. It goes far beyond just on Sunday morning. I go to New Life Fellowship Church and there’s so many opportunities there. The pastor is awesome. The ministry there, to me, is incomparable. It helps me out in my daily life. Everything I do goes back to what I get from there. Columbia is a great place to be for me. It’s not too big, not too small. I get to interact with a lot of people here.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: My mom, Wineva. She’s been gone a few years. Her name popped up in my mind immediately. Since she left, the things that she tried to instill in my life, things that I didn’t do while she was here, now I see what she was talking about as a parent to me. Now I’m trying to be that to my children. Hopefully, one day when I do leave they will see in me what I saw in her and the love she had for me. I’d like to thank for what she instilled in me.
Q: What moment in your life has had the biggest impact on you?
A: I was always brought up in church, but I didn’t have a relationship with Jesus personally. One night when I was offshore alone, I was touched by the Holy Spirit, and it totally changed my life.
Q: Would you rather read a good book or watch a good movie and why?
A: Watch a good movie because you get to relax and it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort. You just lay back and look.
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: I love people. The people that I’m around, if they can’t see the love that I have for people then something is wrong. Most of them do, especially at church. They don’t even know that I’m a deacon, but they know there’s something about this guy because I love people. I want to be remembered as that person that loved people and would do anything to help people.
— Joshua Campbell
Pictured Above: Columbia native Flozell Daniels worked offshore in the oil industry for almost 38 years. After he retired, in addition to being a barber, he also spends his days as a Columbia School District school bus driver. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
