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A community banker
I was about 16 or 17 years old and had a passion for old cars. My daddy, Christie Cox, and I had found two old Ford Model A clunkers in Mobile and he told me I could buy them if I could pay for them. It was $500 for the two, an awesome sum I thought. Daddy told me to go to the bank and take out a loan and he would sign with me and I could make the payments out of the money I made from working at our Coffeeville service station. I was a scared kid when I went to see John H. Becton at the First Bank of Grove Hill. The bank was where the Keahey Law Office is today. Mr. Becton was nice and said, sure, he'd loan me the money. He led me through the paperwork and the terms of the loan. I realized later that he and Daddy had probably conversed on the phone before I got there. This was Daddy's way of teaching me how the adult world worked. John Becton was a party in the process too. I remember the money and how scared I was that I would never, ever, be able to pay the interest, yet alone the principal. I don't remember the terms or how long it took me to repay the money. But I did pay it back. I suspect Daddy pitched in more than the meager bit he gave me for working. Having a bank payment as a teenager did help me better understand money, commitment and responsibility.
I've thought about my first loan in recent days as I learned that Mr. John was slipping away. He died Sunday at the age of 83. John and Madge Becton moved to Grove Hill from Selma in 1965 when he was named vice president of the local bank. The Millry native had worked for a Selma bank and been Dallas County Extension Agent. O. C. Helms was president of the Grove Hill bank at the time but Mr. John ran the operation. He moved up to executive vice president and chief executive officer and then president of the bank. John oversaw a lot of growth at the First Bank of Grove Hill. The bank opened an office in Thomasville in 1983, beating out by a few months a move by rival United Security Bank of Thomasville to open an office in Grove Hill. The Grove Hill bank purchased Jackson Bank and Trust in 1988 and the name of the bank was changed to First Bank and Trust. John stayed on with the bank until 1989 when he retired as president but he remained a member of the board of directors for several more years and saw First Bank and Trust join with United Security Bank in 1997 to become First United Security Bank. Small town bankers call themselves "Community Bankers." John was that with an emphasis on community. Banking was his business but he knew that the vitality of his bank was directly tied to the vitality of the community. He worked hard to nuture economic growth. John served at different times as president of the Grove Hill chamber of commerce. He was on the Clarke County Industrial Development Board and served as its chairman for years and also served as chairman of the Grove Hill Industrial Development Board. During his tenure, Teledyne Brown Engineering brought its tentmaking operation to the county and he helped secure Camptown Togs, a clothing manufactuer, for an empty plant building in Grove Hill. These are just two projects that come to mind. Today, the buzzword here and everywhere is economic development but John worked hard at it at a time when only a handful of local folks were concentrating on it. Despite being sick in recent months, he never lost interest in what was going on. He was up early in the predawn hours the morning this past spring that the announcement came from Germany that ThyssenKrupp would build a $3.7 billion steel mill at Calvert. He wanted to be one of the first to hear the news and he was excited about the prospects for the region. He was involved in a lot of activities in Grove Hill and Clarke County. He helped organize youth sports programs here back in the 1960s , including Dixie Youth Baseball, and was instrumental in helping create the town park. He was a graduate of Auburn Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn) and an avid Tiger fan. He loved baseball on all levels and just this past spring the baseball field at Clarke Prep School was named for him. John was active in his church, the Grove Hill Baptist Church. He was a founding member and the first president of the Grove Hill Lions Club. He was one of the first recipients of the Grove Hill Citizen of the Year award. My condolences go out to his wife, Madge, children, Harla, Jadda and Dana and all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mr. John's legacy and good works won't be forgotten.
Jim Cox is editor and publisher of The Clarke County Democrat.
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