She planned to leave for lunch at noon and not return on her first day at Jackson County Bank.

She had made a pretty big mistake that morning and was beginning to think she had made a bigger one when she took the job.

That was Monday, Aug. 7, 1978, and Mary Anne Jordan returned from lunch and is still at her desk working for the same bank today as an assistant vice president retail loan manager.

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“At noon, I told myself I was not going to be rude and leave, so I planned to work that afternoon and tell them at the end of the day it was just not going to work out,” the Seymour woman recalled.

The problem was Jordan, who was hired as a teller, had reversed the in and out tickets, so her drawer was not going to balance. JCB did things differently than State Bank of Salem, where she had spent the previous nine years.

She remembers how her new co-workers were not upset and helped get things back in order.

“By the end of the day, I was fine,” she said.

That was 40 years ago earlier this month, and retirement is not on the horizon for the 68-year-old, either.

That’s because Jordan enjoys what she does and has built some pretty special relationships with customers, co-workers and anyone who has walked through the door of the bank.

“I love what I do, I love where I do it and I love the people I do it with and for,” she said with her warm and infectious smile. “This is what I do, and I’m the bank wherever I go.”

Something pretty special also has started to occur over the last few years.

Jordan has helped three generations from multiple families with loans on several occasions. Most recently was on the exact day of her 40th work anniversary at JCB.

“I told the young man that ‘This is really cool we’re doing this today because you’re the third generation, and I’ve been doing this here for 40 years,’” she said, adding he remembered she had helped his grandparents and parents. “It’s really fun because I remember when these kids were in carriers or thought about.”

Being there for a family during major milestones like that is something that drives Jordan, she said.

“I love guiding people through these purchases,” she said. “It’s great to see how excited people are to get their house.”

The children who wait patiently with their parents as Jordan helps their parents with a loan don’t forget her, either.

“I’ve been in the store and have had kids say they remember me from the bank because I gave them a piece of candy,” she said. “Or that I helped them get their house. That’s something that makes someone feel good.”

It’s those experiences that have made her a fixture for the bank over the span of her career. Previous editions of The Tribune and The Jackson County Banner show advertising campaigns built around Jordan and a couple of colleagues.

If anyone knew the advice her father gave her when she graduated high school, no one would have expected to see Jordan’s picture in a newspaper advertisement for a bank.

Her father told her she would have to go to college and become a teacher, despite her protests.

“I told him I wanted to work in banking, and he told me I couldn’t,” she said.

Something about how she couldn’t do math was his excuse for her not to enter the world of banking, she remembered.

She stayed persistent and knew what she wanted.

After high school, Jordan graduated from Spencerian Business College’s nine-month program and began her career at State Bank of Salem.

It’s funny to think about now that she has spent 49 years in banking with 40 at the same bank.

“I think dad is laughing,” she said. “He loved it later as time when on and thought it was the funniest thing ever.”

After nine years at Salem, she was on the look for a job in banking in Seymour.

Her brother, Jim Plump, had started a job at The Tribune, and she had married and wanted to work in Seymour.

Plump and Jordan being siblings has to be the best-kept secret in Jackson County, she jokes.

She explained the two spent their childhood attending Immanuel Lutheran Church since Salem didn’t have a Lutheran church and Plump moved here years before she did. When she did move here, she had a different last name.

Anyway, Jordan ends up walking into two banks one day to seek employment and wasn’t prepared for a formal interview.

“I was wearing a pair of flip-flops, a T-shirt and shorts, and Jack Ragland was in the lobby,” Jordan recalled. Ragland was named the president and CEO of JCB in 1974.

She asked for a job and was told she would be contacted either way.

She walked out the door and applied at another bank.

“That evening, Jackson County Bank called, and I got the job,” she grinned.

She started as a teller. In October 1978, she began in customer service and processed loans.

She moved into management and oversaw the location in Brownstown when it opened in 1987. Jordan was in Brownstown for seven years.

In 1994, she found her permanent home with the bank at the Jackson Park location where her office is now.

Jordan was named assistant vice president retail loan manager in 2007.

Not only has her career been successful, but her positivity cannot be broken, even in the face of adversity.

She has been twice widowed and twice beat breast cancer, all with grace.

What brought her through it?

She said going to work at Jackson County Bank was a big part of it.

“That was the only part of my life that was normal, and you want normal when you’re going through stuff like that,” she said. “When I came in here and sat behind my desk, I was normal and like everybody else.”

Marvin Veatch, president and CEO of JCB, said Jordan always brings her upbeat personality to work.

“Her strength, fortitude and positive outlook are attributes I admire, and something we all should strive to emulate,” he said.

It was the help of a special group that made her feel normal during those difficult times, and they’re also her favorite part of working at JCB.

“The customers that have become friends, the friends that have become customers and co-workers who become family,” she said. “I spend more waking hours with everyone here than I do anyone else.”