Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
A trip from New York to California is approximately 3,000 miles one way.
In his more than 63 years of truck driving, Jessie Raphael, of Warsaw, has driven an estimated eight million miles. That's more than 1,333 round trips from coast to coast.
"The main thing is I never had an accident. I got a few citations but I never had an accident, knock on wood," Raphael said. "I've still got more than eight million miles recorded."
At age 80, he still drives cross-country for Explorer Van, where he started working in 1981. He will be driving to Buffalo, N.Y., today.
"I think I got over a million-and-a-half miles with them," he said of Explorer Van. "Right now when we run long distance, we go 800 miles every day."
Raphael has noticed some changes in the trucking industry over the years. He needs more licenses now than when he started (his is good until 2001). Truckers use their CB radios more (he got his first one in 1964). Drivers used to give hand signals or flash their lights to communicate, he said.
He can never quite convince himself to quit. He will stop in the winter because of its affect on his arthritis. And, he said, his family wants him to quit.
"My oldest daughter has given me (a hard time about quitting). I keep telling the same story - I'm going to quit - but I guess that's a lie," he said. "I may go back in the summer if someone wants me."
Born Jan. 26, 1919, in Pelican, La., Raphael's first job was driving a 1931 Ford for a butcher in Louisiana three days a week in the early 1930s. He worked for the butcher four years.
Raphael then began working for a service station on Highway 171. The man who owned the service station also owned Nabor Trailer Factory and Raphael began spotting trailers for him. Seven months later (in 1936), Raphael started driving for DeSota Products, his first professional truck-driving job. From 1938 to 1941, he worked for the Pennsylvania Oil Co. in Leesville, La., driving a tanker truck.
He left the oil company and went into the Army in 1941, seeing action in Guam, Okinawa and other areas in the South Pacific.
"All this time I was driving trucks since 1938," Raphael said.
He was discharged in California on Oct. 11, 1945, and began driving for the family of Hollywood legend Frank Sinatra.
"I saw him a few times. I used to drive for his kids, Frank Sinatra Jr. and Nancy, their nurse and sometimes his wife," Raphael said. "I talked to (Sinatra) a few times." That was in 1946.
Raphael returned to Louisiana later that year and began driving trucks for Matthew Lumber Co. He drove all over the southwest: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
In 1957, Raphael began to drive trucks for what was then Orthopedic Equipment Co., Bourbon, which later became Saemann Enterprise. He had to quit driving in 1980 for a year when he suffered a mild heart attack.
During the early 1970s, he bought two trucks and leased them out to companies. After 12 years, he said, "I didn't lose my trucks, I came out even, but I didn't make any money."
Raphael has four daughters and 13 grandchildren. He moved to Warsaw in 1959, and he and his wife, Bernice, celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary this year.
He said he has never used an alarm clock in his life.
"I just program myself when I go to bed to what time I want to get up," he said. He usually gets about five hours of sleep a night, enough for him.
As for advice for future truck drivers, Raphael said, "If I have to give them advice, I'd tell them to drive for a good-paying company."
