Victorville museum volunteer marks milestone

The California Route 66 Museum in Victorville in a few months will mark its 15th anniversary, and longtime museum volunteer and officer Charlotte “Chick” Kirk recently celebrated her 80th birthday, reported the Victorville Daily Press.

The story behind Kirk’s involvement in the museum:

The museum opened on Nov. 11, 1995. On that very day, Kirk was taking her 14-year-old granddaughter Kristen Christmas shopping. Kristen asked to stop by the museum to buy something for her mom, who she claimed loved the lure of the 2,448-mile road stretching from Chicago to Santa Monica.

“I looked at her and said, ‘Kristen, I raised your mother. She could care less about Route 66,’” Kirk told the Daily Press.

But they went inside anyway and Kirk met the museum’s founder Mark Ward, whom she said pressured her to volunteer there. Once a week turned to twice a week, and in 1997 Kirk was elected president of the museum’s board of directors.

One person called Kirk “the Mother of the Mother Road.” I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that title already has been taken.

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