Women's Tribute: Tammy Haywood

Tammy Haywood is the senior vice president and chief administrative officer for Bank of Gleason.

She grew up in McKenzie, the daughter of Larry and Faye Cook. Her father worked at the Milan arsenal and was an EMT for the ambulance service as well as McKenzie’s fire chief for many years. Her mother babysat local children.

Tammy graduated from McKenzie High School in 1982. She worked at Jim Adams IGA for several years beginning at age 16.

She met Neal Haywood, who came to the McKenzie store from Huntingdon and became the store manager.

They married in 1983, and Tammy went to work for Gary Simmons Chevrolet.

After ten years, Simmons sold the dealership, and Tammy wasn’t happy with the change. She told The Banner, “Gary was great to work for, so that just was very hard.”

Simmons was instrumental in Tammy’s hiring at Bank of Gleason in 1994, putting in a good word for her. She started as a window teller at the McKenzie branch.

In 1998, Bobbye Robison, a senior officer at the main office in Gleason was preparing to retire. Tammy transferred and started taking over Robison’s duties until she retired in 2000, including IRAs, payroll, payables and other administrative tasks.

Though she has risen through the ranks of assistant VP to her current titles, she still performs most of those duties as well as serving as the secretary for the bank’s board of directors. “I have a hard time relinquishing something that I can do,” she said. “I want to stay busy.”

Her tenure at Bank of Gleason has been under five bank presidents: Bob Owen, Curtis Mayo, Mark Hagler, Martha Arnold and current President Preston Frazier.

Tammy credits Robison and Mayo in particular with much of her rise. “They had faith in me.”

She said, “I really like helping my older customers with things they don’t understand. They’ll come see me with questions about their finances. I have so many older customers who are just precious, and it’s just a blessing to help them.”

“I like working with numbers,” she added, citing teachers such as Peggy Perritt and Linda Smith with cultivating her love for math.

Tammy enjoys working for a bank that does a lot for the community. She cited the bank’s star at McKenzie’s Park Theatre, annual scholarships given to students in McKenzie and Gleason and support for sports teams at both schools.

She added, “Working at the bank, especially when it’s a community bank, we just want to take care of our customers. ‘Service, service, service’ we always say. So we all wear many hats, and I’ll do anything to help any of them.”

Tammy spoke about the progress of women in her lifetime. “I think it’s come a long way, just in the past years. You see more women in higher roles. It’s been a big turnaround, more women as leaders. I think women overall are more caring and maybe more meticulous about their job and work, more empathetic to other employees.”

She also spoke about the loss of her husband, who passed away last year. “He is a big part of my life. He was my best friend, and partner. We were married for 42 years. That’s been tough. This whole last year has been really tough. But I came back to work, and that has helped, to try to stay focused and busy. Because he was my person. We did everything together. That’s been a big loss for me. Working, it has helped. I can’t imagine not working, especially at this time of my life.”

Tammy and Neal have two children, Caleb and Katlin, and seven grandchildren.