Page 36 - Panama City Living July-August 2019

Jones, a four-time cancer survivor, began riding with the Motor Maids in 2006. She also founded a local group, The Thunder Angels, in Panama City. That group was active in local cancer fundraisers for 20 years, disbanding last year. She felt it was time to become a part of the national group, lovingly referring to them as “the biggest thing since grits.” Four years after she joined, she convinced her cousin, Pam Tiller, to come along with the group.
Tiller, 62, works as executive vice president and chief financial officer of a construction company in Panama City. She says it took 10 years to convince her husband, Slim, to let her get a motorcycle. “He was always worried about me being out there riding,” she says. Finally, her mother-in-law stepped in and told her son he should be ashamed for not letting her ride since this was the only thing she had ever really asked for.
Slim relented and she signed up for a class in 2010, buying herself a Honda that Barbara drove home for her. Two weeks later, Pam had passed the test and two months after that, she bought her first Harley. Now, nine years and nine motorcycles later, Tiller rides about 30,000 miles a year. She says motorcycles are her stress reliever. She currently owns three Harleys, a Can-Am, and just purchased an Indian Chieftain.
Tiller serves as the national treasurer for the Motor Maids. And Slim? He now rides a motorcycle as well. Tiller has biked to six national conventions and Slim has ridden with her to four of them in Canada, New Mexico, Texas, and Illinois. They plan on making the ride to the 2019 convention in California together, averaging 600 miles a day for the 2500-mile trip.
"THERE'S NEVER A WRONG TURN."
Front row (from the left):Pam Tiller, Deborah Fretwell, Skeets Roche Second row: Barbara Jones, Ester Monico, Caroline Hall, Brenda Fisher, Judy Steed Third row: Debbie Cuthbert, Linda Denham Back two: Kathy Greenwood, Cyndi Richards
36 • July–August 2019 • www.PanamaCityLiving.com