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Business feature: Bank honoring longtime employee

PORTALES - Dannah Brown, then Roberts, went to work at J.P. Stone Community Bank in Portales back in the 1960s, hired before she had even finished high school. Now after 52 years, she's ready for retirement.

"It's time. There's time for everything and it just came about that it seems like the thing to do," Brown said Monday about her upcoming retirement.

The bank is set to honor Brown from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday at its main location, 109 E. Second St., coinciding with its annual open house.

Brown, 70, is retiring as a senior vice president, though she's held just about every title at the bank that you can imagine, besides president and loan officer.

"I started out in the bookkeeping department, I went to proof operator, then to teller, to head bookkeeper, then was in the loan department. I've done payroll and I was in charge of credit administration and loan documentation," Brown said.

Born and raised in Roosevelt County, Brown attended Rogers and Dora schools before moving to Portales when she was in junior high, graduating from Portales High School in 1966. There she took all the business classes she could and enjoyed them, so as a senior she applied at the bank.

"Really financially it would have been hard for me to go to school so I heard the bank was hiring," Brown said. "They called me and hired me before I graduated. I was out of school a week and then came to work. They said, 'Take a little time off.' Well I took off a week."

Bank President David Stone said his father, Douglas B. Stone, hired Brown just about on the spot and since then she's done everything asked of her.

"She's exactly what a bank officer ought to be. She's intelligent, she's considerate and loving and proud, any adjective that you could use that's complimentary, you could use it on her," Stone said.

He said at one time, Brown served as his secretary.

"Dannah is a real mild, quiet, sweet lady and I'd have some disgruntled customers that would come in my office and start talking louder and louder and louder and I'd be talking louder and louder and louder and all of a sudden Dannah would get up quietly and just close my door so they couldn't hear it outside," Stone said.

Senior Vice President Linda Davis, who has known Brown for nearly her entire life, said she will miss Brown's vast knowledge of the bank accrued over 50-plus years.

"My mother and dad had a family business and so before I started school every day I went with my mom to do the banking and Dannah was the drive-in teller and I was 5, and now I've worked with her for 40 years," Davis said.

"She's a great leader, hard worker, cares greatly about the people she works with and she's just always been, I don't know if you want to call her a staple or steady here at the bank, she's been here so many years a lot of people rely on her."

Brown has seen the business change considerably over her 52 years, perhaps most drastically in the late 1970s with the introduction of computers and automated banking.

"When I first came we hand sorted in alphabetical order all the checks that came in, there was no such thing as an account number and we did all the hand posting and balancing, nothing was automated when I first came," Brown said.

She said working at the bank this long was never her intention. She planned to start a family with her now husband of 51 years Gene, which she did, having a son and a daughter, and now eight grandchildren. The changing times with more women entering the workforce, along with the opportunities the bank afforded her to take time off to care for her family, turned a job fresh out of high school into a five-decade long career.

"I just kept working and enjoyed it and before I knew it, it was 52 years," Brown said.

Following her retirement, Brown said she hopes to spend more time with her grandchildren and her 96-year old mother.

"I'm sure I'm going to miss coming down here when you've done it that many years; it's going to take a little adjustment," Brown said. "And the people, the employees and the opportunity I've had to be a part of their lives too, but I'm anxious to spend more time with grandchildren activities."

Thursday's retirement reception is open to all.

"We'd just like anybody that knew her or worked with her or is friends with her to come by that day and congratulate her on her 52 years and her retirement," Davis said.

 
 
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