Banking on consistency

The Evangeline Bank and Trust Company is known as the financial rock of Evangeline Parish, but it is only as strong as the foundation upon which it is built. Part of this foundation has been serving at the bank for the past 45 years and was honored at a special ceremony Friday morning.
Becky Manuel was honored for her years of service and received a special recognition from the Louisiana Bankers Association. Ginger Laurent on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Bankers Association presented Manuel with a plaque for her distinguished service to Louisiana’s banking industry.
“It is special because people who give their careers to the banking industry in Louisiana have made the banking industry very strong, and we appreciate that,” Laurent said. “It’s not an easy feat to stay in one place for 45 years. We certainly appreciate that, and I personally have enjoyed working with her for all of the years that I’ve been in banking and at the LBA.”
Manuel said that working at the bank for so long was “unbelievable.” She added, “The 45 years went by so quickly that it’s like in the blink of an eye.”
Her family was on hand to help Manuel celebrate her special day. “She’s been a hard worker all of her life,” said her husband Kip. “She grew up in her dad’s store. She went to trade school right after because we wanted to get married, and we did get married. She’s been the pride of my life.”
Manuel’s daughters shared their dad’s sentiments. “We’re so proud of mom for working in the same place all these years,” said Candace Manuel. “It was such consistency for us growing up as a child. We got home from school, and she was there. She was able to juggle her job and take care of us in the afternoons. It was just great to have her available, but yet she was still able to have a career.”
“For me, I think she’s just a good role model with a good work ethic and dedication to stick with something for this long,” said Manuel’s other daughter Paige Gaudet. “That helped shape who Candace and I are. We appreciate that the bank was such a good place and took care of her for all these years.”
Manuel began working at Evangeline Bank upon finishing trade school. “I went to school straight out of high school,” she said. “Computers were just starting to get popular, so I took a two-year data processing course. I finished it in 14-months.”
“I had been coming to the bank to do some of my dad Douglas Ortego’s business,” she continued. “Every now and then I would talk to someone at the old bank location across the street, and I kept telling them that I wanted to work here when I finished school. Luckily, they hired me.”
Manuel described what the bank was like when she started in 1972. “Back then the bank was very small,” she described. “It was like a real small family. Everyone knew each other, and we did a lot of things together. It was just really special, and I got to meet a lot of the older employees.”
J. B. LaHaye was president of the bank at the time. Some of the other employees were Isaac Fontenot, Leona Fontenot, Jack LaFleur, Ulysse Lee LaFleur, and Gloria Ardoin.
“When I started everything was done manually,” Manuel said. “Everything was handwritten. Calculators were not electric, and the typewriters were not electric. It has come from that to where now everything is all about technology and electronics which is amazing. You have to adapt and grow with it, or you’ll get left behind.”
When Manuel first started working at Evangeline Bank, she was working in the bookkeeping and proof departments. “I did train as a teller and in a couple other areas,” she stated. “We all cross trained back then more than we do now because we’ve grown so much.”
“Bookkeeping is the department that takes care of the people who write NSF checks,” Manuel described. “In addition it is also customer service if people have problems like needing to stop payments, check adjustments, and electronic adjustments.”
Currently Manuel is in the Information Technology Department. “I’m in charge of operations and bookkeeping, data processing, IT, and human resources. I also work with the tellers at all the branches.”
She then went on to describe the data processing aspect of the job as well as what a typical day is like. “Data processing is taking care of all the technology and communications between all of our branches. Usually I get here before 8:00 a.m., and I don’t stop until I leave at 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. It’s just working all day with the deposit side, with the IT side, and with data processing. It’s non-stop all day long.”
Manuel has seen the bank grow exponentially over her 45 years. “I don’t know the size of the bank back then,” she said. “It was maybe $50 million, and now it’s $560 million. It’s unbelievable the amount of growth, and we’ve added many branches in different areas of the state.”
In that blink of an eye, Manuel has seen branches spring up in Crowley, Alexandria, and Pineville. She also has an eye out to what the future holds for her. “I’m hoping to retire within the next two years,” she said. “My daughter Candace is having a baby, and my other daughter Paige has twin boys. I’m looking forward to spending more time with them and my other two grandkids.”