Sherry Matney

Sherry Matney with her latest set of challenges at The Buffalo Press. My parents did not graduate from high school; neither did their parents nor their parents. As far as I know the first person, in my immediate linage to receive a diplomas is my sister who is seven years younger than me.

My family moved to Dallas in 1955 when I had finished the 7th grade at Lone Star Elementary School in the Flo community. That was the beginning of the three worst years of my life. Being a country girl in a big city school had its hardships and my grades reflected my frustration. Then, when I was in the tenth grade along came my “Prince Charming” who thought this “Fair Maiden” was cute and didn’t mind my country accent and I loved him for that.

When I was fifteen and Paul was eighteen we married and began building our little kingdom. About ten years and three sons later it seemed evident that I needed to find a job. The family was outgrowing the little castle in Mesquite and one of the kids needed braces. Paul was working as hard as he could but there wasn’t enough to stretch.

Not having graduated from high school limited my choices for jobs so I decided to take the GED exam. I was terrified because my grades, once we moved to Dallas, were terrible. When I handed my test to the man who was administering the exam he graded it on the spot and told me that I had scored exceptionally high and that I should consider going to college. Imagine that! Maybe I wasn’t so dumb. Maybe there was hope.

After receiving my GED certificate I got a job at a large bank in Dallas working as a teller. I was extremely embarrassed about being a drop-out so I still felt the need to pursue an education. At that time the bank had several education programs and I chose one where I could go to a local community college and get dual credit; one for a banking certificate and one for college. I continued taking as many classes as I could over the next few years and eventually was accepted into a program at Louisiana State University which was offered specifically to women in the banking industry who needed a degree to advance their careers. Once I was accepted the next challenge was to find the money to pay for the schooling.

The bank had lost a suit which had been filed a few years earlier for discrimination of women and blacks. The court had ordered a large sum of money be placed in trust to pay for employees’ education when requested. As it turned out, the bank paid for everything, even my airfare and room and board. All I had to do was pass the classes.

The program required one month a year for three years on campus at LSU in Baton Rouge. During those three months I took 36 hours of the core business courses required to earn a degree in business. All other hours were taken at a college in Dallas and transferred to LSU. They accepted most of the community college hours that I had earned over the years. At the end of the three years I was still several hours away from graduating but after two more years I finally was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Management and Business Administration from LSU. One of the thrills of my life was to experience my oldest son’s graduation from Dallas Baptist University in ’82; my graduation from LSU in ’83; and my second son’s graduation from Baylor in ’84.

Upon completion of my bachelor’s degree I applied for and was accepted into the Credit Training class at my bank. Another real challenge but I managed to come out in dead center of the class. I then began my career as a loan officer, dealing primarily with business owners.

After a few years the bank failed and the takeover bank moved in with a new direction. Where the old bank was considered a wholesale bank and primarily dealt with large businesses and corporations the new bank wanted to be a retail bank and marketed to the consumer. Laws were changed to allow branch banking and I was asked to open a brand new branch.

The new branch did well and before long I was asked to run a very large bank in Garland, within a few blocks of our home. I ran that bank for five years before the opportunity came to be a Regional Manager with numerous banks and hundreds of employees under my realm of responsibility.

Prince Charming and I had agreed, years before; when I became 55 and he reached 58 we would leave our jobs, no matter what our income. So when that time came, we walked away, sold our house and cars, gave our furniture to our kids and stored what we thought we might need later. We bought a motor home and traveled for three years full time before buying a piece of land in Flo that had been in my family for a hundred years. And that is where we are today.

Years ago I read where the child of a drop out is many times more likely to quit school than the child of a graduate. I think that one statement was a tremendous motivating factor in my life.

All three of our sons have college degrees and married girls who graduated from their respective schools; three grandchildren have graduated from college, two of which are currently working on their Masters; three grandsons are presently in college; and the six younger children are good students who are almost sure to work for a higher education.

So today when an aged “Prince Charming” and “not so Fair Maiden” sit on their porch, drinking iced tea and surveying their kingdom, the “Maiden” remembers James 1:17 “Every good and every perfect gift is from above,” and she whispers “Thank you.”