Fletcher opts to retire after 50-year banking career
December 15, 2021
Landon Fletcher (above) is scheduled to retire December 30 after 50-year banking career. Photo by Sheila Harris.
Sheila Harris
After wavering on the decision for more than a year, a year during which he transitioned from a full-time to a part-time schedule, Landon Fletcher has announced his official retirement from First State Bank (FSB) of Purdy, where he has worked primarily from its Cassville location. His last day is scheduled for December 30.
“I truly love my work,” said Fletcher, possibly one of the only people in Cassville who can lay claim to working at three of the town’s five major banks in a financial career that has spanned five decades.
A native of the Washburn area from down along Greasy Creek, Fletcher attended his first years of school at Cormus Grove, known colloquially as “Measle Prairie” for reasons left to be surmised.
“By the time I started third grade,” Fletcher said, “Measle Prairie had consolidated with the Seligman school.”
Fletcher, who worked for Cassville grocery stores - including Piggly Wiggly and Paul’s Consumers - during his high school years, graduated from Cassville High School in 1968.
“By then,” he recalled, “I couldn’t wait to leave Barry County.”
“Crowder College in Neosho had just started up,” Fletcher said, “so I enrolled and moved on campus into dorm rooms set up in the old army barracks.
“I thought I wanted to become a wildlife conservationist, but discovered I did much better with the business classes,” he said.
Landon Fletcher and Brenda Vanzandt were married in 1969, during Fletcher’s second year at Crowder. As newlyweds, they moved to Springfield, where Brenda worked as a beautician after attending cosmetology school in Neosho, and Landon completed his education at then-Southwest Missouri State (SMS).
While in Springfield, Fletcher worked for a Safeway grocery store, a unionized company, which offered him a head clerk position in Ottawa, Kansas, after his college graduation.
“We went,” Fletcher said, “but, while there, I got out of the grocery business and began a position with Anchor Savings and Loan in 1971. It was the beginning of my financial career.”
During the ensuing years, the Fletchers became the parents of two daughters: Leslie (Smith) and Stacy (Runnels). In 1979, after the savings and loan industry took a nosedive - and deciding that Kansas was not where they wanted to raise their children - the Fletchers returned to their Barry County roots.
“I stopped in at Barry County Bank in Cassville and talked to bank president, Bill Easley, about a position. Six months later I was called in for a job. Shortly afterward, the bank was purchased by Commerce. That was in 1981.
“A lot of things happened in the 1980s,” Fletcher recalled. “There was a period of time when 5-year CDs were paying 16.55 percent interest, which might sound like a lot, but the prime mortgage rate was 21 percent. It brought about what was called the ‘farm crisis.’
“In 1985,” he continued, “the FDIC shut down the Farmers’ State Bank in Exeter and sold it at auction. It was bought at auction the same day by Gary Acker, who changed the name to Security Bank and hired me away from Commerce.”
According to Fletcher, in the late 1980s, he was approached by fellow CHS graduate, Gary Fields, who told him, “I just bought the bank,” referring to the former Rainbow Dinner House, which later became Security Bank’s main location in Cassville. Fletcher went to work for him there.
Fletcher capped his 50-year banking career as vice president of First State Bank of Purdy, where he has spent the past 20 years working from its Cassville location.
“Glen Garrett bought First State Bank of Purdy in 1974, then opened the Cassville branch in 1994,” Fletcher explained. “I went to work for him - actually, Ann Hall, then Larry Moennig, and, now, Randy Henderson - in 2001.”
Fletcher said he’s seen a lot of changes in Barry County over the years.
“When George’s came into Barry County in the 1990s, it made a huge difference for us. At one point, we were the highest grossing agricultural county in the state,” Fletcher said.
A hobby that Fletcher plans to pursue more of after his retirement is scuba diving.
“My wife and daughters and I were all certified back in the 1980s,” he said.
Lake life, in general, hunting, fishing and time spent with his family - which now includes five grandchildren - are all on Fletcher’s retirement agenda.
“It’s going to be hard to go from being a 24/7 Cassville banker, to not being one,” Fletcher said. “Enjoying what you do, they say, is the definition of success, so, by that standard, I’ve been successful. I’ve sure enjoyed meeting the people who have allowed me to help them over the years, and I’ll miss them. Barry County has a lot of good people.”
A retirement open house for Fletcher is planned for Thursday, December 30, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., at First State Bank in Cassville at 98 Main Street.
After wavering on the decision for more than a year, a year during which he transitioned from a full-time to a part-time schedule, Landon Fletcher has announced his official retirement from First State Bank (FSB) of Purdy, where he has worked primarily from its Cassville location. His last day is scheduled for December 30.
“I truly love my work,” said Fletcher, possibly one of the only people in Cassville who can lay claim to working at three of the town’s five major banks in a financial career that has spanned five decades.
A native of the Washburn area from down along Greasy Creek, Fletcher attended his first years of school at Cormus Grove, known colloquially as “Measle Prairie” for reasons left to be surmised.
“By the time I started third grade,” Fletcher said, “Measle Prairie had consolidated with the Seligman school.”
Fletcher, who worked for Cassville grocery stores - including Piggly Wiggly and Paul’s Consumers - during his high school years, graduated from Cassville High School in 1968.
“By then,” he recalled, “I couldn’t wait to leave Barry County.”
“Crowder College in Neosho had just started up,” Fletcher said, “so I enrolled and moved on campus into dorm rooms set up in the old army barracks.
“I thought I wanted to become a wildlife conservationist, but discovered I did much better with the business classes,” he said.
Landon Fletcher and Brenda Vanzandt were married in 1969, during Fletcher’s second year at Crowder. As newlyweds, they moved to Springfield, where Brenda worked as a beautician after attending cosmetology school in Neosho, and Landon completed his education at then-Southwest Missouri State (SMS).
While in Springfield, Fletcher worked for a Safeway grocery store, a unionized company, which offered him a head clerk position in Ottawa, Kansas, after his college graduation.
“We went,” Fletcher said, “but, while there, I got out of the grocery business and began a position with Anchor Savings and Loan in 1971. It was the beginning of my financial career.”
During the ensuing years, the Fletchers became the parents of two daughters: Leslie (Smith) and Stacy (Runnels). In 1979, after the savings and loan industry took a nosedive - and deciding that Kansas was not where they wanted to raise their children - the Fletchers returned to their Barry County roots.
“I stopped in at Barry County Bank in Cassville and talked to bank president, Bill Easley, about a position. Six months later I was called in for a job. Shortly afterward, the bank was purchased by Commerce. That was in 1981.
“A lot of things happened in the 1980s,” Fletcher recalled. “There was a period of time when 5-year CDs were paying 16.55 percent interest, which might sound like a lot, but the prime mortgage rate was 21 percent. It brought about what was called the ‘farm crisis.’
“In 1985,” he continued, “the FDIC shut down the Farmers’ State Bank in Exeter and sold it at auction. It was bought at auction the same day by Gary Acker, who changed the name to Security Bank and hired me away from Commerce.”
According to Fletcher, in the late 1980s, he was approached by fellow CHS graduate, Gary Fields, who told him, “I just bought the bank,” referring to the former Rainbow Dinner House, which later became Security Bank’s main location in Cassville. Fletcher went to work for him there.
Fletcher capped his 50-year banking career as vice president of First State Bank of Purdy, where he has spent the past 20 years working from its Cassville location.
“Glen Garrett bought First State Bank of Purdy in 1974, then opened the Cassville branch in 1994,” Fletcher explained. “I went to work for him - actually, Ann Hall, then Larry Moennig, and, now, Randy Henderson - in 2001.”
Fletcher said he’s seen a lot of changes in Barry County over the years.
“When George’s came into Barry County in the 1990s, it made a huge difference for us. At one point, we were the highest grossing agricultural county in the state,” Fletcher said.
A hobby that Fletcher plans to pursue more of after his retirement is scuba diving.
“My wife and daughters and I were all certified back in the 1980s,” he said.
Lake life, in general, hunting, fishing and time spent with his family - which now includes five grandchildren - are all on Fletcher’s retirement agenda.
“It’s going to be hard to go from being a 24/7 Cassville banker, to not being one,” Fletcher said. “Enjoying what you do, they say, is the definition of success, so, by that standard, I’ve been successful. I’ve sure enjoyed meeting the people who have allowed me to help them over the years, and I’ll miss them. Barry County has a lot of good people.”
A retirement open house for Fletcher is planned for Thursday, December 30, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., at First State Bank in Cassville at 98 Main Street.
