When Tommie Allen said goodbye to her fifth-grade students at Vicksburg Intermediate on the last day of school Wednesday, she also said goodbye to a 45-year teaching career.

“It’s bittersweet,” said Allen, whose first teaching assignment in 1966, at the old Cedars School off U.S. 61 South, was a classroom of 45 students. “I am certainly going to miss the kids, and my Vicksburg Intermediate family. I have had a great time teaching, but it’s just time to go on to something else.”

Allen, one of 47 teachers and staff who were honored Thursday at the annual Vicksburg Warren School District retirement ceremony, plans to visit her daughter in Texas more often and spend time with her three Vicksburg grandchildren.

A combined 1,249 1/2 years of school experience, from cafeteria workers to bus drivers to teachers to district office staff, is retiring as the 2011 school year ends.

“I believe the Vicksburg Warren School District is one of the best, if not the best, school district in the state,” Board of Trustees President Zelmarine Murphy told the assembled retirees, “and this is because of you that have made such a difference in the children’s lives. You have done an excellent job.”

Hugh Cummings retired as the district’s director of information management, but he also spent more than 20 years in the classroom, teaching junior high math, algebra, physics, computer science and a number of programming languages.

All told, Cummings, a Vicksburg native, logged 42 years with Vicksburg Warren schools. While he’s happy to be heading into retirement, he has “mixed” feelings.

“I’m going to miss a lot of things — the people, the folks I’ve worked with over the years,” he said.

Cummings plans to start a small business making old-fashioned Christmas village houses and decorations.

Bus driver Linda Redditt has nearly 40 years of driving Vicksburg and Warren County students to and from school.

Since 1973, she has driven many different routes, but for the last 20 has been the bus driver for Lake Forest, Culkin Road and Freetown Road, she said.

“I have hauled as many as 80 kids,” said Redditt, a resident of the Oak Ridge community for all of her married life — 48 years. “My kids ride good. I never had to have a monitor. They know what I’ll take and what I won’t, and they are good kids. They have been wonderful.”

Redditt and her bus kids all cried this week as school ended and they took their last ride together, but she also said she knew it was time to move on.

“The roads are bad,” she said. “That’s one reason I am retiring. My spine just can’t hold going over these holey roads anymore. But the main reason is I’m turning 66 years old.”

Redditt, who’s also a senior tax adviser with H&R Block, isn’t planning to stop working. She said she’ll also be looking for a second office job.

Lori Nosser taught first grade for all but one of her 34 years with Vicksburg schools, reaching hundreds of children who often come back to see her or bump into her when she’s shopping or out doing other things.

“It’s rewarding seeing the kids succeed, not only watching them succeed in my class but watching them succeed as they leave and grow up,” said Nosser, whose students have gone on to become doctors, professional baseball and football players and enter many other fields. “I love that.”

First-graders need a lot of love and support, she added. “You’re their mother, their teacher, their doctor, their counselor. Your job is to do a lot more than just teach.’

Nosser, whose years were spent at Bowmar, the old Grove Street magnet school and Dana Road, said the first day of school will likely make her feel like something is missing, and the year will bring constant reminders of what the kids are doing at particular times and seasons.

“I’ll be excited for the kids and for the teachers,” she said. “I know that feeling.”

School officials harbor hope that many of the retirees will find ways to come back and help.

“Congratulations to each one of you,” Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Swinford told them. “Don’t forget us. We need you. We need your wisdom. We need your experience.”