Doris E. Rector, 71, businesswoman

DORIS E. RECTOR was as much at home behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer or the handlebars of a motorcycle as she was guiding schoolchildren across busy intersections as a crossing guard.

This funny, charismatic woman was also an entrepreneur, running a sandwich shop for a time in the '60s and early '70s and operating her own van driving students from several local private schools.

She also conducted tours behind the wheels of SEPTA's popular Philly Phlash and the Choo Choo Trolley Tours.

And, oh, yes, there was that Jeep. For years, people who might not have known her name, called her the "lady in the blue Jeep." It was a distinctive Jeep Cherokee with a row of lights across the roof.

Miss Doris, as she was called by friends, died Sunday of complications of a pulmonary condition. She was 71 and lived in Hunting Park.

She was born to Emma and Hamilton Jackson Jr. and grew up on a mushroom farm in Chester County.

She told of eating mushrooms right out of the ground, as well as at meals.

"She said everything they ate had mushrooms in it," said her daughter Tamika Samuels.

Moving to Philadelphia, she attended Peirce Elementary School.

She operated a sandwich shop, featuring Philly cheesesteaks, from the late '60s to the early '70s at 22nd Street and Lehigh Avenue.

After marrying Paul Rector, a truck driver, she learned to drive a tractor-trailer. The marriage ended in divorce.

In the '80s and '90s, she was a crossing guard, first at Broad and Pike streets and later at Old York Road and Erie Avenue. She retired in 1999.

Her adventures on motorcycles ended when she fell and broke a leg.

From the late '70s to the early '80s, she operated a van, driving children from Ivy Leaf school, Cecilian Academy, Lotus Academy, Miss Marty's Day Care Center and other facilities.

As a tour guide, she enjoyed meeting people from all over the world who were taking in the sights of the city. She wasn't shy, and loved to engage people in conversation.

"She loved to talk," her daughter said. "She liked to laugh and make others laugh."

Her nieces and nephews called her "Aunt Chuckie."

Besides her daughter, she is survived by three other daughters, Patricia Woodhouse, D'Rechai Rivers and Temyka Mention; two brothers, Randall and Hamilton Roosevelt Jackson III; a sister, Benetta Green; two grandchildren, and a goddaughter, Amocita Robinson-McClain. She was predeceased by a son, Paul Rector Jr.