As a school bus driver in and around Schaumburg for more than 30 years, Ruth E. Duhamel drove special-education pupils to and from elementary schools, working until cataracts forced her to stop about five years ago. “She enjoyed the company, the kids. She didn’t want to stop working,” said her daughter, Ellen. Mrs. Duhamel stayed close to her daughter-in-law, Margaret, after the death of her son James, 12 years ago, her daughter said. Born in Freeport, N.Y., Mrs. Duhamel, 75, died of cancer Saturday, Dec. 20, in Alexian Brothers Medical Center, Elk Grove Village. She grew up in Roosevelt, N.Y., was an operator for American Telephone & Telegraph Co. in Long Island, N.Y., until her 1950 marriage to Joseph Duhamel. In 1966, when her husband’s employer transferred him to Chicago, they settled in Hoffman Estates. When her youngest child entered kindergarten, Mrs. Duhamel started working as a bus driver. Mrs. Duhamel moved to Schaumburg nine years ago after her husband died. She is also survived by a son, John, and three grandchildren. Services have been held.
