LAURA PARHAM’S dad, Austin Lewis, taught her from a young age that she could do anything. In fact, he expected nothing less from her. While he couldn’t have known where her career would take her, he instilled in her everything she’d need to accomplish her dreams.
Parham said, “My dad was an equal-opportunity parent. If there was a job that needed to be done, you just did it. It didn’t matter whether you were a girl or a boy. I grew up on a farm, and he taught my sister and me how to do everything that he taught the boys, and we were expected to do it.”
Parham has invested her life in assisting others with their finances. Banking is all she’s known. From her first job at Bedford County Bank, three years at what is now the Ascend Federal Credit Union, to her 39 years with Heritage South Community Credit Union (HSCCU), Parham has connected daily with the community through the credit union’s doors.
“I love numbers, but it’s the people and relationships I’ve made throughout the years that I love most. It’s being able to help people afford cars to get back and forth to work, and lending money for college and weddings. I don’t know how many times I’ve sat with widows who just lost their husbands and didn’t know anything about their finances and were just lost. I love helping folks,” she said.
HSCCU evolved from Empire Pencil Company’s Credit Union, EPCO, and the day Parham walked in to apply for a job, her future path was set. When she was hired in 1984, EPCO was a credit union with only two employees and open exclusively to Empire’s employees and their families, providing savings and loans only. Marvin McBee was one employee, and the other had quit suddenly, leaving McBee in a bind. Parham’s experience with the credit union’s operating system got her hired on the spot.
From a single room in the corner of Empire’s manufacturing plant, operations expanded to Empire’s former lab room, where chemistry equipment still filled the counters, and brown recluse spiders lurked in the corners. More employees and services, like checking, were added, and the credit union rapidly outgrew its location.
The credit union moved to its present location on North Main Street in Shelbyville following several interim transitions. It also grew from an employee-based credit union to a community credit union where anyone living in Bedford County qualifies for membership.
Additional locations were added in Lewisburg, Murfreesboro, and Smyrna. Technological advances were rapid, and Parham and the credit union grew. Online banking became a reality, and a global pandemic temporarily changed how we transact and interact.
Marvin McBee served as the president and chief executive officer (CEO), but Parham knew that wouldn’t be the case forever. She recognized McBee’s retirement was on the horizon and imagined a future under another’s leadership. Parham didn’t like what she saw in her mind’s eye. She also knew the position would require a college degree, and that was something she didn’t have.
Parham said, “You tell yourself, especially if you’re fairly successful in your career, that it doesn’t really matter that you didn’t go to college. But I learned it did matter. I’ve never been accused of having a lack of confidence, but you have to swallow a lot of pride to go back to school when you’re 50 years old and say, ‘I’ve never done this before.’ I had to start from scratch, so just to walk through those doors and finish the way I did, I gained a lot more confidence.”
She finished with a 4.0 GPA in four years, working full time, attending classes at night, and working after business hours on her classwork. She was in college at the same time as her youngest son, Tyler, and she earned her degree just before McBee announced his retirement. When the HSCCU board was ready to begin to seek his replacement, Parham was ready.
She said, “When the board interviewed me for the president/CEO position, I was asked why I wanted the job. My answer was simply, ‘I can’t imagine turning it over to someone who hasn’t been here through every stage of that growth and evolution.’ Nobody else had walked that whole journey through.”
Parham was named the new president/ CEO in 2018 and took over when McBee retired. While her job duties changed, her heart for her customers and the credit union employees didn’t.
“Staying out of day-to-day operations has been hard. Now, it’s more about dealing with what the economy is about to throw at us at any given moment and juggling the numbers and the rates, which are crazy right now. I also spend a lot of time working on our growth plan. It’s a lot more mental work. In this position, it’s more about strategizing and making sure that all the decisions and all the things we’re doing on a daily basis are what’s best for our members, number one, and what’s best for the employees,” Parham said.
Her husband, George, and sons, Tyler and Luke, have supported her throughout her journey, but she knows it was the influence of her father that equipped her for the work she does today.
She said, “Daddy’s the one that taught us how to work. He was pushing me to make sure that there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do. It didn’t matter whether I was a girl or a boy; I could do it. I was expected to work and be smart.”
Parham was thankful to be able to share the news with her mama.
“Mama always had confidence in me and was my biggest cheerleader. She was bedridden when I told her I got the position. She had the biggest smile and said, ‘I knew you would get it. I’m so proud of you,’ which was a pretty big deal because, by that time, the combination of dementia and neurological issues from her chemo had really taken their toll. I was so grateful the board told me in time to tell her before she was gone,” Parham said.
And her daddy?
Parham said, “Well, you would have to know him to understand, but he didn’t say anything. He just put his finger up to his chin and grinned ‘the grin,’ which was how we all knew when he was pleased, proud, and happy.” GN
