Terry Sloan
Family: Husband, Steve Sloan; children Cody Sloan and Lacy Jackson
Hometown: Bunch, Okla.
In Town: “I graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in business marketing and work at the Armstrong Bank in Gore, Okla. I am now the market president, which used to be called a branch president or manager. I started in October 1991 as a part-time employee in the position of a CEO assistant. My main activity is with community loans, especially home construction loans, as well as car and personal loans. The biggest change in the banking industry I have seen is in the number of regulations and supporting documentation. This prevents us from being as individual and personal in our decision-making as we would like to be. Sometimes the best knowledge about a loans security is personal knowledge about the person. I am also president of the Gore Chamber of Commerce and have attended to the Gore United Methodist Church for 35 years.
In the Country: “I was born and raised as a town girl and never dreamed I would become a farmer’s wife. My husband is a full-time crop farmer in a family business. We raise corn, soybeans and wheat and are just beginning to add commercial cattle. Through Steve, I have gained an appreciation for the life cycle and how separated town people really are from their food sources. One of the highlights of my year is helping to sell sweet corn to the community while sitting under the shade of one of our trees along with the other women in our family, including Steve’s mother, Phyllis, and Steve’s sister, Kim Pearson. Paying attention to weather and its effect on the crops, to cycle of life and death, I have learned how staying in touch with the sources of our foods have made my life far more aware and meaningful.”
Future: “I look forward to retiring and traveling with my husband to see more of our beautiful and diverse country after our son Cody takes over more of the farm responsibility. I am also looking forward to being a grandmother in the future, hopefully with those grandchildren having childhood memories tied to the land as are my husband’s and my son’s. Those kinds of memories are important regardless of the eventual careers children or grandchildren choose.”
