Joan Colette Tucker

7/26/32 – 5/4/2026

Joan passed away in hospice care in her home May 4th, 2026. She was 93 years old. Born in Rhode Island and raised in Massachusetts, she came to California with her mother and sister in the 40s and embraced her new home state. It was there that she began her life long love affair with driving. Her first training was in school buses in northern California. After a brief stint with Yellow Cab in San Francisco, she met and married a US Marine and they were transferred to San Diego. In 1965, when her children were now both in school, she returned to driving school bus with Aztec Bus Lines. Three years later she got into a highway coach and never looked back.

In 1973 she became the first woman driver ever hired by Gray Line Tours. In 1982 she started working for Sundance Stage Lines, driving bus loads of passengers all over the Southwest. She became so well known that all the drivers and passengers called her “Mother”. In 1984 her sightseeing book “San Diego and the Southlands – Just the Facts” was published. Originally compiled as a guidebook for local tour guides, it was later picked up and enjoyed by the general public and can still be found from time to time on Amazon. She retired around 1989, but forever missed driving and maintained those friendships to the end of her life.

She and her husband Robert “Tuck” enjoyed spending their time traveling and camping with their many friends, until he passed away in 2004. She also enjoyed pursuing genealogy and picked up quilting in her later years.

She will be missed by so many, including her beloved kitty Lulu. She is survived by her son Jim Castro, daughter Barbara Rogers, her sister Paula and brother in-law Roy Haury, grandchildren Sean, Joey and Nick and great-grandchildren Trace and Tallon.

Services will be in early June, to be announced soon.