The selection committee of the Texas Bankers Hall of Fame announced the selection of Cynthia L. Blankenship, Randal Clayton, Joe C. McKinney, Paul S. Moxley, and the late Glen E. Roney as the 2019 Hall of Fame honorees. These Texas bankers will be inducted on April 25, 2019, at the Seventh Annual Texas Bankers Hall of Fame Gala held in the Lowman Student Center Orange Ballroom of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville.
The Texas Bankers Hall of Fame, established by the Smith-Hutson Endowed Chair of Banking at Sam Houston State University, recognizes outstanding bankers who have made valuable contributions to the banking profession and pioneered the Texas banking industry. The honorees have truly made their industry, communities and state better places.
Blankenship is a past chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), a national trade association that represents community banks. A charter shareholder, director and vice chairman/corporate president of Bank of the West in Grapevine, Blankenship serves on the ICBA Board of Directors. She has been ICBA Chairman, chairman-elect and vice-chairman. Blankenship has chaired ICBA’s Bank Education, Congressional Affairs, Membership/Marketing, Nominating, Policy Development and Strategic Planning committees. She is immediate past Chair of ICBA Services Network and sits on the ICBA Federal Delegate Board. She most recently served on the FDIC Community Banking Advisory Board.
Blankenship has testified many times on Capitol Hill before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. She has attended meetings at the White House and participated in a nationally broadcast press conference with President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. She continues to have a presence in Washington, D.C., by attending meetings at the Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank, CFPB and the Small Business Administration.
She was chairman of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas in 2002 and chairman of the IBAT Education Foundation, which raised more than $1 million for financial literacy. Blankenship was appointed Dean for Bankers and chaired the Southwestern School of Banking Foundation at Southern Methodist University. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking – Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business. In 2004, U.S. Banker magazine named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Banking. In November 2010, she was named as one of the 2010 Great Women of Texas by the Fort Worth Business Press. She is scheduled to be inducted into the Sam Houston University Texas Banker Hall of Fame in April 2019. She is a member of the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce and recipient of the 1999 Arts Education Award, the 2004 Colleyville Women’s Club Novus Award, and the 2014 D. E. Box Citizen of the Year. In 2009, she chaired the Grapevine-based festival’s GrapeFest annual gala, which focuses on Texas wineries and is one of the largest community events in the Southwest. Blankenship currently sits on the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors.
Her community bank specializes in small-business lending and has eight locations. Blankenship lives in Grapevine, with her husband, Gary. They have three daughters, Lisa, Bailey and Samantha.
Clayton has provided banking services to the citizens of Van Zandt County for 46 years. From teller to president and chairman of the Board of Directors, Clayton has spent his entire banking career with the First State Bank of Ben Wheeler. The bank has been locally owned and operated since 1911.
McKinney began his banking career in January 1974 as a Credit Analyst at Texas Commerce Bank in Houston. His career included increasing lending and management responsibilities in the Houston Metropolitan, National and Southwest lending groups. Joe was promoted to Executive Vice President and head of Commercial Banking in 1985. In November 1987, McKinney moved to San Antonio to become chairman and CEO of Texas Commerce Bank – San Antonio, a position he held until March 2002 when he retired. Texas Commerce Bank experienced tremendous growth during this 14-year period. The profile of Texas Commerce Bank grew from one of being a small player in the business community to being considered the premier commercial/corporate bank in San Antonio.
Moxley, president & CEO of Texas Regional Bank, Harlingen, was born in Staten Island, N.Y., moved to McAllen when he was six months old. He grew up in McAllen and has been a resident there most of his life.
He has led a noteworthy career serving the residents of McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley. Paul holds a B.S. in Construction Engineering from Trinity University in San Antonio. He played football in college and played one season with the San Antonio Toros after graduation.
In August 2012, Moxley joined Texas Regional Bank as President/CEO and board director.
Roney was born October 29, 1930, in St. Elmo, Texas. His childhood job as paperboy in Corsicana delivering papers to Texas Gov. Beauford H. Jester was his first experience with a Texas governor, but it would not be his last. While he devoted his life to banking, he would go on to serve other Texas governors: John Connally, Dolph Briscoe, Bill Clements, Mark White, Ann Richards, George W. Bush and Rick Perry – along with Lt. Govs. Ben Barnes and Bill Hobby. His service to both Texas and the Rio Grande Valley was a key aspect of his life’s work.
In 1946, Roney’s family moved to San Benito, where he started his banking career in 1947 at the San Benito Bank and Trust Co. as a file clerk. He has often said he would have started as a janitor had that been the position that was open.
In 1961, Roney accepted a position with McAllen State Bank as chief operations and lending officer. Later, he served as executive vice-president, CEO and president. In 1981, Glen and a group of McAllen business leaders opened Texas State Bank in McAllen. Soon Harlingen State Bank and Texas State Bank grew into a statewide banking organization, led by Roney with his wife Rita K. by his side. He was a member of the board of directors of both banks. The banks merged in 1983 under a holding company – Texas Regional Bancshares, Inc. (TRBS).
Texas Regional Bancshares Inc. sold to BBVA in November 2006 for $2.165 billion in cash, reportedly the largest cash transaction ever for a bank in Texas. Roney served as a director for 10 years after BBVA acquired Compass Bancshares Inc., and merged all of the Texas State Bank branches.
Roney was appointed by Gov. Dolph Briscoe and re-appointed by Govs. Bill Clements and Mark White to the Texas Water Development Board. He served as chairman of the Texas Water Resources Finance Authority, co-chairman of the Governor’s Task Force Committee on Border Economic Development, and founding member of the South Texas College Board of Trustees. He served as director for the Texas Bankers Association, South Texas Higher Education Authority Board, Council of South Texas Economic Progress, South Texas Academic Rising Scholars (STARS) Scholarship Fund Board, and the Texas Water Resources Finance Authority.
Roney passed away Nov. 10, 2018.
