WHEN GREAT-GRANDMOTHER HITS ROAD, SHE COMMANDS 53-FOOT TRACTOR-TRAILER

ALTO PASS, Ill. -- Most women let alone great-grandmothers probably wouldn't even consider driving a tractor-trailer solo across the United States. But that's how Josie Jerdon cuts a different path.

Jerdon is a 60-year-old great-grandmother who lives near Alto Pass and drives part-time for the Dannie Gilder trucking company in Cape Girardeau, a job she has held since she was 56 years old.

"A woman who drives by herself is like 2 or 3 percent of the trucking industry," said Jerdon. "It's real low."

A great-grandmother of two and a grandmother of 10, Jerdon is somewhat semi-retired. She hasn't driven for Gilder since around late September or early October, but she plans on setting up some work soon with the company, she said. The time off has come as sort of a vacation for Jerdon, considering she estimates that she has driven an average of 150,000 miles annually over the last four years.

Jerdon and her husband, John, a former truck driver himself, live on a small farm that has a few beef cattle.

Jerdon explained that she didn't begin driving a tractor-trailer on her own without somewhat of a push. Economics forced her into the business after her husband developed heart problems and had to quit driving tractors in 1983, she said.

Three years later she began driving for Gilder. "We had to have an income, and I couldn't see working for minimum wage when I knew how to drive a truck," she said.

"The first time I even got in a truck in my life was in '77. I was always too busy being a mother."

For the most part Jerdon hauls paper products from the Procter and Gamble plant north of Cape Girardeau. On return trips, she has hauled items like canned goods, tires, and pistachios.

Though she will do short hauls, Jerdon said she prefers long trips, such as to California. That's why she likes working for Gilder the business hauls merchandise mostly west, she said. During the majority of her trips, Jerdon said, she is gone anywhere from six to eight days.

Not only does Jerdon go against the norm as far as her work is concerned, the tractor-trailer she drives is a 53-footer, five feet over the norm.

The majority of women who work as truck drivers must prove themselves, Jerdon said. For that reason, she said, when you find a woman truck driver, you'll generally find a person who's more conscientious and professional in her job. "I've found female truck drivers who drive by themselves feel the way I do," she said.

Jerdon said, she has always approached her truck-driving job in a professional, business-like manner.

"I didn't go into a man's world and prey on men and get them to help me," she said. "I got paid like the men over there (at Gilder's), so I did my job like the men. That's the way it has to go.

"They (male truck drivers) treat you with as much respect as you demand."

Jerdon gets support from her husband, who said she does a good job of backing up a trailer, something that alludes a lot of younger truck drivers and some older ones.

Nevertheless, there are male truck drivers who feel she and other women shouldn't drive tractor-trailers, she said. The largest part is older men who are more prejudiced against women, she said.

"They've never said anything, but I've had them really watch me whenever I'm doing anything. By the time (the trailer's) almost unloaded ... I can see a look of respect."

As for any other women who are considering becoming tractor-trailer drivers, Jerdon advised them to act in a professional manner, and make other women proud of them.

"I think it's great when I see a woman out doing a job like I was. It made me feel good," she said.