CJ Bostic, a Southwest Airlines legend, daughter of 'The Great RJ'
Press-RepublicanMar 30, 2024
Mar. 30—PLATTSBURGH — CJ Bostic's legacy and legend ripples still after her death at 73 from myeloma cancer, a cancer of the plasma cells, in 2022.
Out in the world, she was known as
They and their family — CJ,
Rickey, who is a resident at
"Everybody knows my daddy in
"The story begins in
Before she joined
In 1972, CJ, 23, joined the
A year after joining
Though CJ was blazing her career, she returned to
"My parents house is right there across from the Field House," he said.
"I didn't know she was coming. When I got home, my bags were packed to move to
The next thing Ricardo knew he was on a plane heading to
"I lasted about five years," he said.
"I was showing up late to work, and I thought nobody can touch me. My sister helped get this company get off the ground. I thought I was untouchable and got my butt fired. I ran to her saying, 'They fired me. They can't do that.' My sister looked at me, and says, 'Oh, well. That's how it goes. Everybody has to go by the same rules. Go find another job.' She was always by the book. Always. She had a power. People would come up to me — pilots, flight attendants, gate agents — they said she was the reason why their lives got changed because she gave them an opportunity. It was always so humbling. Anytime she walked through the airport, everybody wanted to take a picture with her."
It didn't change whether CJ was in
"They would tell me the stories about how she impacted that company, and that she gave them hope and she was the face of
"The new president says if we can bottle what she represented and make everybody drink, we would be the perfect airline."
CJ won the Founders Award.
"They called her 'The Original,'" Ricardo said.
"They threw her a 50th anniversary party and 6,000 employees showed up here before she passed away. They threw her a party that everybody will remember at
CJ passed away four years after her cancer diagnosis and was preceded in death by her brother
"The new president came up and told a story at her funeral and said she was the only employee that made him nervous because she had such a power in that airlines," Ricardo said.
"Pilots wouldn't take off until she said it was time. She was highly, highly, highly respected throughout the whole entire industry. Her funeral was viewed online throughout the whole entire company. Thousands of people got to see her funeral. We had it at the biggest church here in
CJ is buried in
"She was very close to my mom and my dad," Ricardo said.
"When my mother passed away, it broke her. Because my mom was the one that laid the belt on her to make her the woman she became. That's the story of my older sister, and it's still coming. It hasn't stopped. They just wrapped up her estate. She gave half a million dollars to Feed the Hungry,
CJ was "Auntie" to eight.
"My kids and my sister's kids were her kids," Ricardo said.
"She never had kids. She just had a big heart. She gave, she gave, and she gave. She did good, and Dad is proud of her."
College scholarships were named in her honor in
"
"They did one for her here at a nursing school in
"My sister got a training plane named in her honor about eight months ago," Ricardo said.
"It has her picture inside and her initials on the outside of the plane. It's a training simulator that pilots and flight attendants can train in. It's like the newest training plane like Tesla. It's state-of-the-art. Thousands of flight attendants will be trained. They dedicated it in her honor. They had a big old ceremony about 500 people showed up when they dedicated that plane in her honor. It does everything. It simulates rain. It simulates if you're in a storm. It simulates everything. My sister empowered so many employees and opened the door for so many people."
Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
Twitter@RobinCaudell
___
(c)2024 the Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, N.Y.)
Visit the Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) at pressrepublican.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.