KILMICHAEL – Joanna Miller, longtime employee of Bank of Kilmichael, will retire at the end of March after more than 40 years with the bank.
Miller, a vice president and bank security officer, said she started her tenure with the bank in February 1980 at the age of 20.
“I started filing checks and sending bank statements,” Miller said. “Back then you had to check the signature on the checks to make sure they matched the signature on file. I have pretty much worked at every job at the bank but loans.”
Miller has worked under three generations of Mortimer leadership at the bank.
“Mr. Legrone Mortimer was here when I started,” said Miller. “Then there was Rodney [Mortimer, former president], and Buddy [Mortimer, current president] and I went to school together. Now, Kent [Mortimer] is here, too. They are a very caring family, and they care about us.”
Miller attributed her longevity to the bank being a “great place to work.”
“I surely didn’t want to leave my favorite customers,” she said. “I love my customers. I love to make them feel like someone is watching out for them.”
While at the bank, Miller said Jean Hill and Faye Pearson were both “very influential in my banking career.”
And banking evolved over the four decades of Miller’s career.
“Now, we are taking pictures of checks, and you don’t even have to come into the bank,” Miller said.
Miller said when she began thinking of retirement, she thinks about Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
She explained, “I feel like it’s a new season for me and my husband. I want to do some mission work for my church.”
Fishing is a priority in her retirement.
“I love fishing,” she laughed.
A member of Providence Baptist Church in Carroll County, Miller plays the piano for services. She hopes to visit area nursing homes to play for them as well, and anywhere else she can spread the spirit of the Lord. She also teaches the ladies Sunday school class at Providence, and she wants to better minister to the members of her church.
In addition, Miller hopes she can combine her love of camping and mission work by participating in Campers on Mission, a ministry of the Carroll Montgomery Baptist Association. Participants travel to various locales in their campers to minister.
“In the days ahead, that’s what we will do,” Miller said.
Miller and her husband, Joe, also have plans to visit Yellowstone National Park later this year.
“That’s my first bucket list trip,” she said.
The mother of three children, Deanna Woods, Allen Cummings, and Tricia Williamson, Miller is looking forward to spending more time with her five grandchildren.
Miller’s Bank of Kilmichael family will honor her with a retirement reception at a later date.
