When Charlotte McCarty rings in the new year, she will do so as a retired person. In fact, New Year’s Eve will be her last day on the job after a 26 year career at Vinton County National Bank.

She began her career as a part time teller, a position that grew into a full time job. She has held a few titles including Head Teller, Branch Service Manager and now Branch Manager. Through it all, she has served the customers of our Wilkesville branch where she has gotten to know scores of people who she says she will miss. “I’m looking forward to retiring but I’ll miss the people a lot. We have customers who I’ll miss. Plus we have some wonderful employees who I’ll miss too,” she said.

Charlotte has worked for the bank for 26 years and has spent most of them with coworker Alice Mccloud who just retired last week.  “We live close enough we can see each other sometimes but it will be strange not seeing her every day,” Charlotte laughed.

She didn’t intend to get into banking. A friend who worked at VCNB called and asked if she would be interested in the job. “I didn’t know anything about banking and wasn’t sure I could even do the job. But I really enjoyed it when I got the hang of things.

One important part of community banking is building relationships with customers and she is especially good at doing that. “The thing about working in a small community is that you get to know almost everyone and they get to know you. It feels good when someone calls and asks for you. It tells you that you’re doing something right – that you’ve built a relationship with that person and they trust you to take care of them,” she explained.

While she says she will miss those human connections, Charlotte looks forward to having free time for the things she enjoys. “I just like the idea of being able to do what I please, when I want to. It will be nice to get into sewing more or to get in the car and go somewhere. I’m hoping to do some gardening and take better care of my flowers. I always have good intentions in the morning and think of all the things I’ll do when I get home after work but sometimes I’m lucky just to make dinner and do dishes. It’s hard to keep up.”

Her husband Denver has been retired for a few years. “It has been hard to get up and leave home on cold, frosty mornings when he gets to stay home,” she laughed. “Now I can stay in or we can go to Amish Country or something. I was up there a while back and did some fun things but I really loved just driving around a looking at things. I hope to do more of that.”

Charlotte and Denver have two grown children and three grandchildren. Denver pastors the Fairview Church of Christ in Christian Union and the couple have been involved in the church for their entire married life. She has taken on many roles including Sunday School teacher and song leader. She also is a talented seamstress who made over 200 masks early in the pandemic and has made special occasion dresses including her daughter’s wedding gown and all the dresses for the bridal party.

“Sometimes I think I might come to really miss working. I like staying busy and I like the people. This has been a good place to work. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to work all these years but I’m glad that I’ll have more time for me.”