In Memorium of the Santa Cruz Road Ranger

Santa Cruz Sentinel
April 27, 2004
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riter’>By SHANNA McCORD
Sentinel staff writer
WATSONVILLE — To say that Alan Little, aka the “Road Ranger” of Highway 17, was a one-of-a-kind character, would be putting it mildly.
To say that Little cared about his fellow man would be an understatement.
And to say that Little didn’t live life to the fullest would be flat out wrong.
Little died Wednesday at his home ranch in Watsonville after battling brain cancer for nearly a year. He was 55.
“It was always like, what is Dad going to do next?” said daughter Heather Little, 25, of Boston. “He was just a character, a wonderful, weird, intelligent man.”
Fitting with his personality, Little “stole” his own car the day before he died and drove to Monterey to get a haircut, said son Trevor Little of Astoria, N.Y.
“He was really ornery. He could be cantankerous and ornery,” Little said. “But he was my No. 1 fan, supportive in everything I did. For that, I’m eternally grateful.”
Little became a reliable and familiar face to drivers who commuted over the hill between 1979 and 1983, when he patrolled the highway between Los Gatos and Scotts Valley looking to give roadside help to stranded motorists.
He is said to have fixed more than 12,000 cars during that time. Repairs ranged from overheated engines to flat tires and broken water pumps. Never did Little ask for a dime more from drivers than the cost of parts.
“He spent so much of his life giving positive feelings to other people,” said Little’s mother, Mary Mueller of San Jose. “He was a very interesting young man.”
Little received the Road Ranger nickname partly because his gravelly voice was said to be remarkably similar to that of the original Lone Ranger of radio fame in the 1930s. He also dressed the part, with a gray, western-style jumpsuit, black cowboy hat and boots.
His stint as Road Ranger drew national attention and Little become something of a folk hero, giving interviews to NBC’s “Real People” and CBS’s “Evening Magazine.”
Santa Cruz resident Wayne Stanton remembers Little coming to his rescue when he and a couple pals had set out on a hunting trip in Colorado in the late 1970s.
Early in the morning, barely a couple miles over Highway 17, the water pump in their Chevy pickup went out, Stanton remembered.
“We were standing around with the hood up wondering what to do and this guy came up and said, ‘I’m the Road Ranger’,” Stanton recalled. “We laughed, but he turned out to be our savior.”
Knowing there are hundreds of other stories just like Stanton’s, Little’s family asks motorists who have Road Ranger rescue tales to write of their experiences and send them to 1115 Trafton Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039. The family will compile the anecdotes to make a memory album, and file it with a local museum.
Little was diagnosed with brain cancer last June. By the time it was discovered, it had already grown to dire proportions. He underwent surgery that reduced the cancer only slightly, his stepmother, Ikey Little, said.
Even then, faced with a life-or-death situation, Little told his doctor that he would have the surgery only if he could still go on a previously planned sailing trip on the waters north of Vancouver.
“He always did it his way,” Ikey Little said. “He had no fear.”
During the past year, Little underwent chemotherapy and radiation that did little to hold the cancer at bay. While watching himself deteriorate, Little kept his sense of humor.
“He would tell us that his IQ was dropping,” Ikey Little said. “He told us it went from 89 to 79. The other day he told us it was 43.”
The role of Road Ranger was only one way in which Little left his mark as a model citizen.
Little quit high school during his junior year to join the Army. He trained at Fort Ord in Monterey and Fort Lewis in Washington. He served two tours in Vietnam, earning nine medals that included the Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm.
“I didn’t want him to join the military,” his mother said. “But he gave me no choice. He brought the papers home one day and said he was going to join whether I signed them or not.”
Little contracted malaria in Vietnam and spent three months recovering in a hospital on Okinawa, Japan.
He continued active duty in the National Guard, serving as sergeant in charge at the armory in Gilroy until retiring in September 1993.
During retirement, he worked on the family ranch in Watsonville.
“It’ll be a big hole when he’s not there,” Mueller said.
Contact Shanna McCord at smccord@santacruzsentinel.com.
Alan Norman Little
BORN: June 22, 1948, Watsonville.
DIED: March 31, 2004, at his home ranch in Watsonville.
EDUCATION: Quit high school during junior year, then earned a GED. Associate of Arts degree, Cabrillo College, 1993.
OCCUPATION: ‘Road Ranger’ of Highway 17, Army sergeant, rancher.
SURVIVORS: Son Trevor Little of New York, N.Y., and daughter Heather Little of Boston, Mass.; mother Mary Scott Mueller of San Jose; sisters Bonny Le Pape of San Jose and Donna Sheehan of Gresham, Ore.; brothers William Little of Moss Landing and Roger Little of San Jose.