“What a career banking has made for me, great co-workers, mentors, customers and forever friends. I couldn’t have made this journey without the grace of God, the love and support of my family.”- Breneda Mathis, Executive Vice President/Branch Manager, Texas Bank and Trust

by Joycelyne Fadojutimi

Like so many others who have achieved boundless career success, local banking executive Breneda Mathis gives credit to God, her family, and mentors for steering her down the straight and narrow route.

“My father passed away in 2016, but both he and my mother were very instrumental in my life and career,” she says. “I learned honesty, work ethics, integrity and to respect others as well as myself.”

She has spent the past 42 year in the banking industry and sixteen of her forty-two years in banking as an employee of Texas Bank and Trust. Following college, she applied for work with financial institutions. Kilgore First National Bank was first to contact her. She has spent the following decades learning the nuances of banking and the financial needs of others. She listens carefully to customers as they share with her their personal and economic concerns. Helping others is her passion. When asked what she loves most about her career, she replies simply, “My customers and co-workers.”

Despite her passion for what she does for a living, her Christian faith is first in her long list of priorities.

“I am a Christian who prays that my light is always shining for others to see Christ in me.”

Her mother is an example of everything that determination can accomplish. She would have been the first in her family to attend college. However, a house fire that destroyed their family home also burned her dream of becoming a nurse through Texas College’s nursing program.

Hence, as a single parent she worked two jobs to support her children, telling them: “I will supply your needs, but you will have to work for your wants.”

Breneda’s strong work ethic started incredibly early at age 12. Her family spent the summer months in Seattle, Washington with their grandmother, aunts, and cousins.

Even though she was 12, she landed a job for 15 years old. “I worked with a group of teens and a Sponsor delivering Stop Crime booklets in the Seattle neighborhoods,” she said. “All I knew is that I was going to get paid.” Excitedly, she mad a call to Texas.

“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 Mathis 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 vice-president. 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 problem-solving 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 vice-president and branch manager.

She now scrupulously cares for her mother, who keeps a scrapbook of all her daughter’s many accomplishments.

Breneda Mathis 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.

1.   Master where you are. Don’t leave a department until you have mastered it.            

It is a message as simple as it is vital.