Women in Longview Day hits high notes

The recent annual Women in Longview Day (WILD) was a hit. Women entrepreneurs had their tables set up. Attendees were moving from table to table inspecting, asking questions, exchanging pertinent information, or buying displayed items.

Jennifer Malone with the City of Longview said she came with friends. According to Ms. Malone,

WILD is a good event. She learned new information about human trafficking.

Sarah Medin had her Mary Kay Cosmetics booth. She said, Linda Brooks invited her. According to Medi, she likes the WILD because it affirms women.

Furthermore, Gina Tullo and her volunteers from Longview Regional Medical Center displayed their table. They were hoping to recruit more volunteers for the hospital.

In addition, Donna Sharp, one of WILD members and organizer was thrilled at the turn out. “Our event is back and big. We are expecting 250 guests,” she said. “Vendor marketplace is busy and that is a good thing for the ladies.”

Furthermore, Women in Longview Day had several speakers including Breneda

Mathis, Texas Bank and Trust executive vice president and branch manager. She told her attentive audience how she climbed the ladder of success.

Ms. Mathis got her first job at the age of 12 in Seattle Washington while visiting relatives. The Lord blessed her with mentors at important junctures of her life. Moreover, she worked extremely hard to put herself through college. Her presentation showed that nothing was given to her on a platter. To date, Mathis has worked for 42 years in the banking industry with 16 of those years at Texas Bank and Trust.

Women in Longview was formed in 1984. It is a non-profit organization that puts on Women in Longview Day. The organization gives scholarships to graduating seniors and adult women returning to college. For more information or to become a member, please visit https://womeninlongview.org.

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"I called Mom to tell her I could buy my [own] school clothes," Brenda says. "I just knew that would help her out."

When Breneda turned 16, she went back to Seattle. And voila! she landed a job working for a lawyer in downtown Seattle. An uncle taught her how to read the map, bus routes and schedules in order to use the public transportation to get to her job. These two Seattle job experiences played a vital role in her life enabling Breneda to set high goals for herself.

The next summer prior to her senior year, she got a job working for Longview Independent School District thanks to MANPOWER employment agency. She worked with Margaret Parker and J.L. Everhart. Parker and Everhart. The duo showed tremendous interest in Breneda. “They literally took me under their wings and mentored me,” she said.

By her senior year, she was working half days for LISD principal Charles Lee, Jr. Lee who was in charge of various school checking accounts. He taught Breneda how to reconcile bank statements. Furthermore, he helped her to correct her name on her birth certificate from Brenda to Breneda; register for Kilgore College, and to apply for grants to pay tuition and purchase textbooks.

"He called me Birdie and told me to always use a pencil with a good eraser," she says.

While in college, she worked parttime at the Cherokee Club before moving on to East Texas State University. She and three friends were able, through grants, to rent a two-bedroom apartment off campus, but needed another $2000 for out-of-district fees. Her cousin Earnest in Seattle came through, providing the money.

"I have been repaying that debt for forty-two years," she said. "When he comes home to visit, I pick him up at DFW airport, stop to eat either breakfast, lunch or dinner, drive him to Longview, entertain him during the visit, and take him back to the airport."

After polishing her banking skills with her ten years at Kilgore First National she moved on to a position with the administration account department of the Kilgore Independent School District. Two years later, a chance encounter with the bank president led her back to Kilgore First National as secretary to the bank's vicepresident. Eventually Regions Bank bought out Kilgore First National and Longview National Bank. Breneda worked her way up to the position of branch sales manager. The bank's first African-American officer, she also became "Rookie of the Year" at the end of her first year. Her problemsolving skills were invaluable.

"During my time with

Regions I received the Bravo Award for working with a task force in Birmingham, Alabama once a month to work out operational issues during the Texas merger," she says. She has since been named to the Chairman’s Club as a sales manager, achieving all of Regions' sales goals before moving on to Texas Bank and Trust and spending the past sixteen years as senior vicepresident and branch manager. She now scrupulously cares for her mother, who keeps a scrapbook of all her daughter's many accomplishments.

Breneda admits that she has been a recipient of God’s goodness and kindness in the journey of life – putting significant people in her path at different junctions.

"What a career banking has made for me, great co-workers, mentors, customers and forever friends," she says. "I couldn't have made this journey without the grace of God and the love and support of my family. God has been with me every step of the way and blessed me indeed.”

Two basic truisms she has learned and unconditionally abides by as a financial professional are:

(1) You will make mistakes, just don't make the same one twice.

(2) Master where you are. Don't leave a department until you have mastered it.

It is a message as simple as it is vital.