First Lady of Banking, Janet Miller, Retires from Du Quoin State Bank

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ For a person who was to work at the same location for 46 years, it didn't take Janet Miller long to learn how to make the most out of maximum three-day vacation breaks.

"When I first came to work at the Du Quoin State Bank, employees were only allowed three-day vacations . . . there were no extended breaks, not even for a honeymoon," Janet said.

"So I just scheduled our wedding for 7 p.m. on a Saturday night, worked until 4 that afternoon at the bank, and with Sunday included, had a four-day honeymoon trip. It worked out just fine," Janet said.

Friday (Feb. 27) will be Janet's last day of employment at the bank where she "signed on" only after promising bank president Kenneth Cook that she'd stay for at least two years.

"Mr. Cook asked for a three-year commitment, but only after I promised him I'd stay for at least two was he willing to take a chance on me."

As it turned out, it was a good move on Cook's part.

Starting out in the bank's bookkeeping department, Janet worked her way through all of the stops in the next few years before finally winding up as a teller.

"As a teller you actually have an opportunity to see faces and associate them with just the names that you had been so accustomed to working with in other areas," Janet said. "Many times they didn't look like you had imagined them being, but one thing about it, they were always nice.

"I feel like there's a friendship between me and our customers. They're not just customers to me, they're friends and perhaps that's one reason why I'm going to miss coming in next week. This bank is partially my bank . . . it really is and anytime I've been able to bring in a new customer, it means something to me," Janet said.

"Just last week I was assigned to our Tamaroa facility where happenings are a little slower and you have more time to visit with customers," Janet said. "It made me sad when I was leaving there to realize that I may never see many of those customers again. But that's just the way it is. Enough is enough and I guess after being here 46 years, it's enough."

She has the same warm feeling for dozens and dozens of fellow co-workers she's met down through the years.

"I wish I'd kept a notebook on emloyees even though it'd be a very thick one by now," Janet said. "We have a lot of turnover now in comparison to my early years here. Early on when I first started, turnovers just didn't happen. It's a whole new world we're living in today as young people are so eager to make a move in an effort to find something better. I guess we were far more conservative years ago."

"Even though I've been looking forward to my retirement for sometime, I feel good that I stayed on 44 years longer than the two-year commitment I made to Mr. Cook," Janet said.

She and her husband, Joe, are active members of Du Quoin's A-Way-We-Go Camping Club and will continue to schedule even longer trips than in recent years although the "three-day vacation" policy changed long ago at the Du Quoin State Bank.

"Oh, my, yes," Janet said.

"There have been so many changes around here that I can't even think of all of them," she said. "The banking business, itself, has become so modernized in almost every department. Too, we've had some major physical changes and additions here at the bank which involved a lot of re-alignment. And, who would have thought years ago that we'd be allowed to wear slacks to work."

Janet, who went through the Du Quoin school system -- Wheatley, John B. Ward and Du Quoin Township High School -- prior to graduating with the class of 1962, will soon be concentrating on her yard in Old Du Quoin and working as "clerk" at the Old Du Quoin Baptist Church.

Unquestionably there'll be a tear or two shed Friday when no telling how many of Janet's friends take time to stop by the bank to say "thanks" for being a friend in addition to being just a teller.

There's absolutely no way her Monday night dream that the reception was outdoors, it was snowing and no one attended will come true. It'll be more like a campfire gathering with all honors and attention being given to the Du Quoin State Bank's "grand and gracious lady" for the past 46 years.