{"id":154351,"date":"2026-02-13T13:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154351\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:58:17","slug":"hart-bus-honors-rubin-padgett-sr-s-lasting-impact-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154351\/","title":{"rendered":"HART bus honors Rubin Padgett Sr.’s lasting impact in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Every day, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) buses travel across Tampa Bay, carrying commuters, students, and stories.<\/p>\n

Right now, in honor of Black History Month, some of those buses are carrying history.<\/p>\n

HART has wrapped several buses with pictures of prominent black pioneering trailblazers, like Rubin Padgett Sr., who was the first black man elected to the Hillsborough County Commission.<\/p>\n

Good Morning Tampa Bay anchor Deiah Riley pulled up at her daughter\u2019s high school and saw the bus in the parking lot. But when she got out of her car, what happened next, she never expected.<\/p>\n

Riley noticed a crowd gathered around the bus. Standing next to the bus, pointing at the picture of Rubin Padgett Sr., was 80-year-old Rubin Padgett Jr. He knew his father was featured on a county bus for Black History Month, and that was his first time seeing it.<\/p>\n

\"padgett<\/p>\n

WFTS<\/p>\n

That emotional moment led to a conversation Riley had with Padgett at the family home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see the picture of your father rolling around on a HART bus, and then to stand there next to his picture with your son and your grandchild. You’re getting emotional. Tell me what you’re feeling?\u201d asked Riley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m a very emotional person. I love my dad, and I listen. And when I saw that picture, it just…it just filled my soul. It’s just filled my heart, you know, just to see that generational, it’s getting to see that on a bus of a Padgett generation of what my father did while he was alive. And, you know, just to think that he did so much and to be honored even after his death, it’s incredible,\u201d said Rubin Padgett Jr.<\/p>\n

He said that the surprise was coordinated by Madeleine Mitchell, a teacher at Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School, and his daughter-in-law. They worked together to get him, his son Jonathan, and Jonathan\u2019s son Jeremiah, a sophomore at the school, together in one place for the big reveal.<\/p>\n

Three generations of Padgett men admire the one who created the family legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just opened my heart to the fact that other people now, even though they didn’t know my father, would get to see something that my father did while he was alive,\u201d said Rubin Padgett Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt like he was being like, seen. So that made me proud. That made me happy,\u201d said Jonathan Padgett.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt good when people were like, asking me about my grandpa, great grandpa,\u201d said Jeremiah.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you think your father would say about all of this?\u201d asked Riley.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn’t want the accolades on him. He wants the accolades for what is done, what he does, and what he gets done. And that’s, that’s what I think, that’s the way I feel about it,\u201d said Rubin Padgett Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s a man who says, Let my work speak for me,\u201d said Riley.<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly, exactly, and that’s exactly what I think he would say,\u201d said Rubin Padgett Jr.<\/p>\n

One face, one family, a legacy that keeps rolling for all to see.<\/p>\n

Rubin Padgett Sr. died in 2020 at the age of 89. His legacy lives on as at least two prominent locations in the Tampa area are named in his honor, The Arbors at Padgett Estates Housing Complex and The Rubin Padgett Sports Complex in Palm River.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Deiah

Anchor Deiah Riley has called Tampa Bay home for more than 15 years. As a mother of two, she knows the importance of a good education and finding affordable things for families to do. Reach out to Deiah with any education related stories or activities you think she needs to know about.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

5 dead in Sarasota shooting ID’d, linked to Ft. Lauderdale double homicide<\/p>\n

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said five people are dead after a shooting in a Sarasota neighborhood, including a suspect authorities say may be connected to a double homicide in Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n

5 dead in Sarasota shooting ID’d, linked to Ft. Lauderdale double homicide: SCSO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Every day, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) buses travel across Tampa Bay, carrying commuters, students,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[48241,2674,34657,42470,629,5033,74426,135,5910,137,136,74427,208],"class_list":["post-154351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-black-history-month","tag-bus","tag-gmtb","tag-hart","tag-hillsborough","tag-impact","tag-pioneer","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-trailblazer","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}