Beloved school crossing guard dies at 76

Gladys Bennink risked her life every day for the safety of children. For nearly a decade, she shepherded Imperial Elementary School students across the busy intersection of Imperial Highway and Nohl Ranch Road. Twice, she was injured on the job, including once in a hit-and-run accident. On March 11, the crossing guard who served the school from 1976 to 1983 died in Bakersfield. She was 76. Born on Oct. 7, 1926, in the city of Northeast, Penn., Gladys was a friendly farm girl. She lost her left arm as a young child when a fracture turned into gangrene. But she never let the loss slow her down or keep her from doing farm chores with her nine siblings. "She often said she never really missed it because she had grown up, for the most part, without the arm," said her son Lowell, a sports reporter for the Register. "She didn't remembered much about having two arms." "Gladys the crossing guard," as Imperial Elementary School children knew her, was born Gladys Stoddard. She married Edward Bennink at 18 when she was still in high school. Her husband was headed off to the Pacific islands to fight in World War II. They married while he was on leave. "He was stationed at what became Edwards Air Force Base," Bennink said. "She was an excellent student in high school," he said. "She wanted to be a teacher." School officials told her she wouldn't make a good teacher because, with one arm, she Photo courtesy BENNINK FAMILY Gladys Bennink, who served as a crossing guard at Imperial Elementary School for nearly a decade, died March 11 in Bakersfield. Wouldn't be able to properly impose discipline on the kids. "My mom told the woman who said that: 'If I have to be able to hold a kid with one arm and beat them with the other, I don't think I want to be a teacher after all,"' Bennink added. Gladys and her husband had four children, three boys, Lynn, Blair and Lowell and a girl, Melanie. "Mom had an endearing quality. You knew just by looking at her that she didn't have an easy life," daughter Melanie Cantu said. "She just had this way of connecting with people. There was something about her that people just trusted. She never betrayed a trust never talked bad about anyone."Before becoming a crossing guard, Gladys worked at a variety of jobs. She worked in retail at Montgomery Ward, she cleaned model homes, she sold Tri-Chem liquid embroidery. In the fall of 1976, she began helping children to and from Imperial Elementary in Anaheim Hills. She was the school's first and only crossing guard for many years. Everyone loved her. The faculty invited her into the teacher's lounge where she made many friends including then Principal Harriet (Bakenhus) Perry. "She was absolutely fearless in doing the duty necessary to keep those children safe," Perry said. "She was an important part of opening that school. "Gladys Bennink knew all of the children by name. Many remembered her for the candy canes she gave out on the day before Winter Break each year. They showed their appreciation by showering her with little gifts. "She would come home with the backseat of her car full of presents," Lowell recalled. "Even people who didn't have kids would stop and give her flowers or small gifts," he said. "She loved it." Anaheim Hills motorcycle officers knew her, too. They often stopped to check on her or just to chat. Once, she broke her foot during the day but finished her shift - making sure the children were safe - before calling her employer to say she was hurt. When bumped by a car in her crosswalk, she gave police a full description of the vehicle, including a key an identifying mark on the hood. It was the spot where she had whacked it with her big, red, stop sign. It helped them find the culprit. Imperial Elementary held "Gladys Appreciation Days" in her honor several times before she transferred James Guinn Elementary in 1983. They held a "Good Bye Gladys" day for her, too. She worked at Guinn from 1983 through 1986 when she became supervisor of the Anaheim's crossing guards. "She loved that job, too. It made her feel important," Bennink said. "My mom always referred to that job as 'supervisor over the crossing guards in Anaheim.' She never said it another way. And she always said it with an air of deep importance." She saw it as the most important job in the world. She suffered a stroke in the mid-1990s that forced her to retire. She lost her husband in 2000 and then moved to Bakersfield to live with her daughter. She was bedridden for the last 18 months of her life. "Gladys the crossing guard" loved her plants and her pets. She enjoyed reading and watching TV, particularly soap operas and the news. She rooted for the Lakers and Angels. "She even rooted for the replays," Cantu recalled. She was hospitalized on Super Bowl Sunday with congestive heart failure and clung to life for two months. She died as she had lived, surrounded by children - but in the end they were her own. She is survived by sons Lynn, Blair and Lowell Bennink, daughter Melanie Cantu, son-in-law Alex Cantu and daughter-in-law Lisa Bennink. She also lives on in the memories of hundreds of other children who she thought of as hers.