Maye and Faye’s Building & Loan: The Story of a Remarkable Sisterhood: Maye Smith, Faye Hudson, Leslie Whitaker
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Those who don’t believe that the history of a banking institution can be folksy and charming will have to read the story of the Point Pleasant Savings and Loan and the twin sisters who made it one of the strongest in West Virginia, at a time when S&Ls around the country were collapsing. Smith joined the firm in 1952; she was named president in 1975. Hudson went to work there in 1960 and was made vice-president and secretary in 1983. Aided by Whitaker (coauthor of The Beardstown Ladies’ Common Sense Investment Guide), they tell the tale of a bank where almost every customer was a friend; where ultraconservative investments were the rule, even during the razzle-dazzle ’80s; and where the building was spotless because, if a janitor was absent, one of the twins scrubbed the bathrooms. They sold out in 1995, making many of their investors big profits through their bank stock. Maye and Faye, depicted in photos taken throughout their lives, are as hard to tell apart at 73 as they were in infancy. Women who despair of breaking the glass ceiling will find this account particularly heartening.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Smith was hired as a teller at the Point Pleasant Federal Savings & Loan in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1952 and retired as president in 1995, having sold the bank for $17.5 million. Aided by her twin sister, Faye, who started as a teller in 1960, she guided the organization through the savings-and-loan minefield of the Eighties that saw the introduction of automated techniques and the deregulation of the industry, causing millions of dollars of losses to other S&Ls and increased competition from the investment industry. Telling the story in the first person provides an intimate window on the wisdom of these two sisters and highlights the rewards of a steadfast dedication to one’s work. Coauthor Whitaker, whose Beardstown Ladies’ Common Sense Investment Guide (LJ 1/95) falls short of this, has done an exceptional job bringing this story to light. Recommended for public libraries.
-?Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.