78 Photo Essay: Kay Sartain

COO, Bank of Walker County

Words by Terrell Manasco | Image by Blakeney Clouse

 The old relic sits in silence in Bank of Walker County’s rear parking lot, its shiny coat of fire-engine red paint gleaming in the sunlight. A spool of water hose is anchored to the bed of the 1947 Ford, and painted in yellow letters near the driver’s door are the initials “C.B.” The tailgate bears the words Don’t Get Burned by the Competition. 

The vintage fire engine, purchased by bank president Tony Sparks, is an appropriate metaphor for Chief Operations Officer Kay Sartain. “I feel like my job is putting out fires,” she says with a dollop of pride. 

A 1973 Parrish High graduate with a passion for accounting, Kay worked at People’s Hospital in Jasper briefly before applying for a position at Bank of Parrish in 1977. Under the tutelage of bank manager C.B. “Byron” Wilson, a career was born. 

“I did not go to college—I went to the ‘C.B. Wilson School of Banking,’” she jokes. 

In the early 1980s, Kay worked for various banks in the Louisville, Kentucky, area while her husband was in seminary school. After returning to Alabama in 1987, she worked for First Alabama Bank until a phone call from C.B. Wilson brought her back to Parrish. Years later, when his son Mark founded Bank of Walker County, he asked her to come along. “I said, ‘Yeah! I would!’ Kay chirps. 

Kay is a graduate of the Alabama School of Banking and holds a basic degree in banking through the Alabama Bankers Association. Now in her 17th year at BOWC, she serves as ace troubleshooter, problem-solver, and fire-vanquisher. “If there is a hot spot, a problem, come to me—I'll figure it out,” she says, underscoring the team nature of the bank. “I have three girls that I work with closely; I feel like they're my daughters. There's not much going on in the bank that we don't touch.”

After 44 years in the banking business, some people would be planning retirement, but Kay believes God put her there for a purpose. She still loves helping customers and says she’s not ready to go home. Not that anyone would let her anyway—“The girls tell me I can't retire yet,” she laughs.

Besides, there will always be fires to vanquish. 78