Sandy Morrison retiring after 54 years in banking

Sandy Morrison retiring after 54 years in banking

Dec 7, 2018

Justin Harwell presents Sandy Morrison with a clock honoring her years of service and upcoming retirement from FirstBank in Fayetteville. The presentation was made during a reception held in her honor Friday.

Friends and colleagues kept streaming into FirstBank’s Lobby Friday to express their love for Sandra (Sandy) Morrison, a local woman who got her start in banking at the age of 16 and who will be retiring later this month after 54 years in banking.

Since those early days when she joined State National Bank in her hometown of Decatur, Ala., Sandy has seen banking undergo tremendous change, much like so many businesses over the past 50 years.

“I remember when a mortgage loan was a note and the mortgage, and it all fit in a plastic sleeve,” she recalls. “You can’t get by now unless the document is 50 pages or more!”

It wouldn’t be too many years later when she would meet a fellow from Tennessee, thanks to an introduction made by a cousin’s beau back in their dating days – “I was the maid of honor in her wedding, and she was the matron of honor in mine,” she said.

It’s been 44 years ago now that Jerry and Sandra made their home here in Lincoln County.

With FirstBank here in Fayetteville for the last 13 years, Sandy was honored Friday with a retirement reception at the bank’s offices on Wilson Parkway. Her last day on the job, though, will be Dec. 21, and as fate would have it, that’ll also be Jerry’s last day on the job at C&T Auto Parts, where he has worked for more than 25 years, as the two retire together.

A big believer in community, Sandy has been very involved here. A member of the Fayetteville Rotary Club, she is also a past president of the Fayetteville-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau. She is also a past board member with Leadership Lincoln.

“We’re looking forward to doing a few things on our bucket list,” she said, noting that she also plans to remain involved in the community and maybe spend a little time with their grandson, Alex, who, she says, laughing, “is 13 going on 40.”