Betty Harrison
Brenda Duncan
Lin Bearden- President & CEO
Continued from page 71
period costume.”
LeeAnn Neal is celebrating 21
years with the bank. Today she’s the
President’s Assistant (Lin Bearden),
but she started as loan assistant. She
was promoted to her current position
about 15 years ago.
“I like the variety,” Neal said. “I
like how things work. He asks me my
opinion and that’s good because I
always have one.”
Twenty-one years ago, when Neal
recalls interviewing for her job. “The
gentleman who interviewed me asked
me, ‘Why did I want to work for the
bank?’ I said, ‘I have no idea.’” He
hired her on the spot.
Betty Harrison oversees the safety
deposit boxes, mostly.
“I do other things, but mostly
work with the safe deposit boxes,”
she said. “I’m 75 years old. I worked
for the gas company. Somebody
told me the bank was hiring and I
applied.”
She began her career with the
bank working in bookkeeping. “I
ary 17,” she said, adding that she
married in 1979. But, her job at the
bank was not her first career.
“I worked in auto registration for
four years,” she said. “Then, I stayed
home and helped a friend take care
of her mother. I heard that a posi-
tion had opened up at the bank
and applied. I started out in proof. I
moved up to the credit department,
stayed there for 12 years.”
Now, she’s back in the credit
department and has been for eight
years.
“What I like best about my job?
I love the people,” she said. “I like
what I do. I’m now an escrow offi-
cer and work in the files. I like the
people I work with. We have a really
great group of people to work with. It
seems like if you need help or ques-
tions, they go out of their way to help
you. One of the greatest times was
when we had the 125 th anniversary
of the bank and we all dressed up in
LeeAnn Neal
reconciled and ran proofs,” she said.
“After 35 years, (her anniversary
with the bank is March 5, 2019) I feel
like I need to get up and get out. But,
I think this keeps me going. I just like
my work, I like the family I work for.”
It’s not the only job she has had,
but it’s her favorite.
“I like working with people,”
she said. “Most of it is working with
people who are really nice.”
Some abandoned safety deposit
boxes yield some interesting items.
Most unusual items she’s seen
include teeth, adult teeth. “One
gentleman had his wife’s ashes in a
safety deposit box,” she said.
In May of this year, Bank
President Lin Bearden, will cele-
brate his 21 st anniversary with First
National Bank.
It all began in 1998, Bearden
was 33, a young dad and working
at Weatherford College. He had just
finished earning his master’s degree
and knew if he wanted to continue
progressing up the ladder, he’d need
to go for his doctorate. But he knew
how much time he’d have to invest
to do that and with small children at
home, he really didn’t think that was
the best idea.
The president of First National
called Bearden and encouraged him
to apply for an opening at the bank.
“It’s been a huge blessing,”
Bearden said. “It’s been a great place.
Joe (Sharpe) and Zan (Prince) have
been very, very good to me.”
His favorite part about his work?
“We give back to the commu-
nity,” Bearden said. “We give back to
the community more than anybody
in town. That’s who we are and what
we believe in doing. That’s what
is best about being a charter bank,
locally owned. We’re not like other
banks that are just branches, that
everything goes somewhere else.
What we do here, stays here.”
Like other longtime members of
the FNB staff, Bearden loves working
with people.
“When you know you’ve made a
difference for someone, that’s great,”
Bearden said. “Whether it’s a $5
million business loan or a $5000 loan
so that somebody can buy a car, the
fun part is dealing with people.”
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