Obituary of Lori A. Petty

Lori Ann Busko Petty, loved riding her Harley Lori Ann "Mud" Busko Petty was hard to get to know. But when you did get to know her, she was "the most wonderful person in the world," her husband, Bailey E. "Mountainman" Petty said. "If she found out you were genuine, and she opened up her heart to you, she was the best person in the world," he said. Mrs. Petty, 41, of Walton, died Sunday in a motorcycle accident in Walton. Mrs. Petty, a cook at a Wendy's restaurant in Independence, also was dedicated to helping charities and other causes that bikers rallied around. She was a member of the "biker's church" at the Fellowship of Believers Church in Florence, the Kentucky Motorcycle Association, Motorcycle Riders Organization of Kentucky, Task Force Omega and American Bikers Aim Toward Education. She died doing what she loved, which was riding her Harley-Davidson, he said. It's quite possible that riding Harleys was in her blood, having grown up in Wisconsin - Harley capital of the world. She had ridden dirt bikes while growing up, but it wasn't until she met her husband that she started riding Harleys. After riding on the back of her husband's motorcycle for a while, she soon got her own bike - and her own nickname. He said the two were at a bikers' event when it started pouring. To keep the bikes out of the mud, he advised her to drive it onto the road next to their camp site. "She refused to follow my instructions," he said. Instead, she rode it over to a muddy spot and it fell over. Angry, she then barreled out and splattered herself with mud. "She had a little temper," he said. Her 17-year-old daughter, Billie Jean Gilland, later earned the nickname "Puddle" because she's so much like her mother. Despite Mrs. Petty's temper, she had an honest and caring side, helping her husband take care of his mother before she died. "You've got to love somebody that would do that and face that adversity," he said. She was preceded in death by her father, Elroy Busko. In addition to her husband and daughter, survivors include a son, Jeffrey Busko, of Wisconsin; mother and stepfather, Gladys and Donald Baumann, of Marathon, Wis.; three stepdaughters, Mary Gilland and Michelle Lee Gilland, both of Cincinnati, and Laura Petty, of Florence; a stepson, Gene Petty, of Elsmere; four sisters, Lynn Busko, of Antigo, Wis., Jeanne Busko Suligur, of Park Falls, Wis., Jackie Krueger and Lisa Busko, both of Schofield, Wis., three brothers, Joe Busko, of Marathon, Wis., Mike Busko of Bradenton, Fla., and Jim Busko, of Rothschild, Wis. Visitation will be 5-8 p.m. Thursday at Chambers & Grubbs in Florence. Funeral will be after visitation.