Marilyn Calvert ends 59-year career at First National Bank

By Editor | March 30, 2011 |

Marilyn Calvert is retiring from First National Bank of Vandalia this week after logging 59 years, more than any other employee of the bank.

She is both taking with her, and leaving in the wake of her remarkable career, many good memories of the growth of the bank, of the people she worked with and of happenings over the years (many humorous), also sharing a history of the customs and attitudes of the banking business almost 60 years ago.
Calvert is also leaving in the wake of her banking career several changes, some of which benefited the female employees.
The business world, in general, was a man’s world when she started at the bank. One could say that Marilyn Calvert was Vandalia’s forerunner of the EOE (Equal Opportunity Employer), as she saw the need, and stood her ground, for equal recognition for women.
Observing Marilyn’s sharp memory, her acute business sense (honed over the many years) her perception and understanding of situations and people, and the obvious respect, regard and friendships formed with fellow employees, peers and customers, one senses this step away from a life’s work of over half a century cannot be an easy one to take.
The Early Days
“I’m just ‘timed out,’” Marilyn said, with a smile. “When I became 62 and then 65, people wondered when I was going to retire. They didn’t expect me to hang around until I was 76. I started working here in 1952, when I graduated from St. Elmo High School,” she said.
Her graduation could be an example of Marilyn’s steadfastness and determination to finish a job she started. An example is her determination to finish high school, despite obstacles. The obstacles were due to the lack of defined school districts and buses back then.
“We were in no high school district at the time. We lived an equal distance from Ramsey, St. Elmo and Brownstown. St. Elmo agreed to send a bus, and one day the bus didn’t come after I’d walked three-fourths of a mile. I straggled back home, astounded that the bus hadn’t come.”
Marilyn’s parents were John and Madge Brown, and her father had a sister living in Ramsey.
“I went over there to stay with her and go to school in Ramsey a couple of months. Then exams came. If you had a certain grade, you didn’t have to take exams, so I went home on Thursday evening,” Marilyn said.
“In the meantime, my dad got a job in Brownstown, and I didn’t go back to Ramsey.”
Marilyn rode back and forth to the Brownstown school for two years. “They sent a bus from Brownstown my junior year. My senior year, Brownstown and St. Elmo switched territories, and I went to St. Elmo my last year, the same place I went my first year,” she said.
Opening the “Account”
“That first summer after I graduated, in 1952, I came here, applied for a job and was hired,” she said. “I started as a loan clerk in Mr. (Harry) Truitt’s office, and after a while, became secretary to the bank president, Harry E. Rogier, in 1953,” she said.
“Then, I was supervisor in bookkeeping department, then I was off for a year and a half when I gave birth to my daughter, Daryl. When I came back to work, I was clerical, then human resources, operations department, official reports, purchasing, treasurer, working for First Vandalia Corp. and supervisor of Bookkeeping.
Business was a Man’s World …(and Subsequent Changes)
“There were no checking account numbers then,” Marilyn said. “We used only the cashier check, no imprinted checks. The accounts were in the man’s name only, and the wife would sign her husband’s name.”
“We would keep cashier checks for all the banks around, because that was all that was used.”
”This is something a lot of individuals don’t know, but when I started, if there were arms on a chair, it was a man’s chair,” Marilyn said. “Girls had ‘secretarial’ chairs, no arms. If there were pictures on a desk, it was a man’s desk. Women didn’t show any family connections, any pictures.
“Women were not important; they were disposable. EOE (Equal Opportunity Employer) was not even heard of then,” Marilyn said.
“The bank got the first group health care in 1950, before I started. But in those days, women employees did not have maternity insurance benefits. Men did, the men employees’ wives did have the coverage,” she said.
“I had the last baby that was not covered under the group plan and Terri Braun had the first baby that was covered under the plan,” she said.
“There were no maternity leaves. You had to quit your job within 30 days of wearing maternity clothes, If you wanted to come back, you had to reapply and be considered a new employee, no matter how many years you had worked here. No grandmothers worked here then, certainly no great-grandmothers,” she said.
Culture of the Customers
“And the culture of the customers, too, was such that they expected men to be in charge, to have the final word,” Marilyn said.
“There was an insurance program that I was involved in, and I had done all the work on it. A little lady came in, clutching her purse in both hands and she said, ‘I want to talk to someone about insurance.’ She gave me a look and said, ‘And I want to talk to a man.
“Verle Laswell was sitting there and I said, ‘I’ll have you talk to Mr. Laswell.’ He said, ‘Lady, I have no idea what you are talking about; I’ll have you talk to Marilyn,’” she said.
“But it was just the culture. Throughout the years, the attitudes have changed, the attire has changed. Back then the women were not allowed to wear trousers. They had to wear dresses, suits, skirts and high heels. They were finally allowed to wear slacks, but only with a nice matching jacket or vest. Then, slacks with blouses or shirts were allowed,” she said.
“We are now allowed to wear matching shirts with the bank logo on them and blue jeans on Saturdays,” Marilyn said.
Some Changes & Firsts
“I’ve seen a lot of firsts,” Marilyn said.
“There were no women officers; I was the first woman officer. There were no women loan officers; Marcia Vaughn was the first woman loan officer. The first woman bank director was Denise Corbell. Liz Heinzman is the first woman trust officer,” she said.
When Marilyn started doing the payroll and discovered that the hourly men’s was based on 40 hours a week and the women’s were based on thirty-six hours a week , “I didn’t know that until I started doing payroll,” she said. “I walked right into Harold Hartwick’s office and said, ‘Harold, this does not look right to me.’ He changed it and made them equal.
“There were no women bank examiners,” she said. “The examiners would come unannounced at that time; now we know when they are coming. We closed at 3 p.m. in those days, and they would stand out on the sidewalk on the north side of the bank until we closed the door at 3. Verle (Laswell) was always ready to leave at 3. One day I saw him jump up from his desk and shoot into Harold’s office, yelling in a loud, hoarse whisper, ‘There’s a woman out there.’ The bank examiners were coming in, and the first woman bank examiner was with them,” she said.
“There were many changes in equipment and office machines. We had manual typewriters, then electric typewriters, then we went to the wheelwriter Ideal typewriter, and in the meantime, the computer came along,” Marilyn said.
“We had no computers, obviously, when I started, so our record bookkeeping has changed considerably,” she said. “In years past, I manually calculated the savings accounts interests and Christmas Club interests. That’s automatic now. In those early years, we had four people working manual adding, then we got calculators.
“I’ve taken many business courses and many banking-related courses, seminars and training sessions in all phases of banking throughout the years, in Chicago, Memphis, Tennessee, Indianapolis, Springfield, Norman, Oklahoma and St. Louis. Usually, I would be the only woman present at these meetings,” she said.
Memories
“The drive-in had to be away from the bank, since there was no way to drive up close to the bank. We had a walk-up window on the west,” Marilyn said.
“Since the drive-in facility was in the parking lot, a tunnel was built to connect them, since branch banking was not allowed. Entry was from Fifth Street and a chain was fastened across the access each day at 3 p.m. So every day someone would go out to put that chain up.
Customers
“But Ella McKee drove a pink Cadillac, and she wasn’t stopping for no chain. So if Ella was coming and you were the one putting up the chain, you just dropped that chain and got out of the way,” Marilyn said.
“Then there was Hazel Simma Kelly. She was such a gracious lady, and she kept in touch with us, even when she went to Florida.
“We had some wonderful characters, like Father Gribbins. He couldn’t drive (well); you just stayed out of the way of his ’57 Chevy. But he had this wonderful Irish brogue.”
Employees
We’ve had so many outstanding people working here in the past – John Palecek, who took a lot of pictures; Jessie Maas, who also took a lot of pictures; and Margaret Torkelson, who was the first employee to retire after 50 years of service. There was Harry Rogier, Harold Hartwick, Harry Truitt, Jim Oberlink … so many.
When the Bank Owned a Plane
John Palecek and a retired military officer, Chuck Low, piloted us to Chicago and to Dayton, Ohio, to the NCR store when we were shopping for computers. They were very careful and checked the plane over carefully, going through a procedure before every take-off.
Exciting Events
“There was the time we were alerted to bank robbers possibly heading our way. Sheriff W. David Brown was on duty in our basement, just in case.
“Another first was when a lobby teller had a problem customer, who ran from the bank. Harry Satterthwaite and I chased him north on Fifth Street, east down the railroad tracks and caught him at last.
“Another problem customer ran, and Randy Edwards and I chased him down the alley south and caught him.”
Marilyn, Personally
Marilyn and her husband ,Revis, live in St. Elmo. They are the parents of a daughter, Daryl; and a son, Jim (deceased). The have three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Active in the community, Marilyn is a charter member of the Soroptimist International of Vandalia, and has served as treasurer and President. She was the first treasurer of FAYCO, first treasurer of CrimeStoppers and treasurer of the American Legion Auxiliary; and formerly was a member of the St. Elmo Women’s Club and the PTA.
Over the years, Marilyn worked in virtually every department of the bank.
She also worked with four bank presidents – Harry Rogier, Harold Hartwick, Ray Radliff and Ernie Chappel – and she speaks well of all of them.
Many memories, many accomplishments, many challenges, and many fulfillments in a career that began in an age where it was a man’s world and spanned over half a century.
Marilyn reflects, “The First National Bank has been the most constant part of my life. I have had the privilege of working with great directors and staff members, each in their own way making a difference … and I am remembering that my mother had the foresight to suggest that I apply at First National Bank in Vandalia.”
This week, Marilyn Calvert is “closing out” a career that certainly held a “high rate of interest.”