CHARLIE GRAY: Small town or big city, success keys are same

Charlie Gray will be one of the first to tell you that hard work is an invaluable key to success.

Adapting, being versatile and overcoming adversity appear to also be keys.

Born in Halletsville but having grown up in Houston where she graduated from high school at age 17, Charlie (it’s short for Charlene) recalls a childhood where higher education was not a priority.

An only child of parents who did not finish high school – her father went to school through the sixth grade and worked on a beer truck in Houston, while her mother attended through the eighth grade and didn’t work outside the home – Charlie grew up with built-in limitations but unlimited dreams.

“I didn’t grow up thinking that college was important. A high school education was all you needed to get,” Charlie says. “I wanted to go to college, but my dad said the only way he would pay for college is that if I would be a doctor or a lawyer. I was an early (high school) graduate, and I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. I did know I wanted to go to Texas A&M to school, but he wasn’t going to let me go.”

So the September after graduation, instead of heading off to college, Charlie’s mom drove her around Houston from business to business to business applying for any jobs available. “I thought I wanted to be a secretary, that was what I was applying for.”

Charlie eventually ended up at an employment agency, which led to her getting an interview at Mercantile Bank, where she worked two years before marrying Roger from Waelder. The couple moved to tiny Poth, where “there was nothing there at that time but a convenience store and a bank, and I didn’t know a soul there.”

But six months later at age 20, the newlyweds moved to Gonzales where Charlie apprehensively accepted a position with Dr. Bill Oliver as a dental assistant, a position for which she had no training.

After two years, however, she landed a job at Gonzales Bank before joining newly-chartered Independence Savings & Loan in January 1981. Three acquisitions later, Charlie has now been with Prosperity Bank (and its predecessors) for 30 years.

“I’ve done just about everything in the bank you can do,” Charlie admits, who is senior vice president at Prosperity Bank.

After 30 years with the same company and 35 years with the same husband, Charlie has a good idea about what it takes to be successful.

“You just have to work hard. When you work for somebody else, you do what they tell you to do,” she says matter of factly. “You have to work hard; you gotta work beyond the call of duty.”

But success is measured in the boardroom. “An important thing in small communities like this is outside activities, supporting your community. That helps a lot. Being involved in different clubs and organizations – giving as much to that as you do to your job,” she advises.

“It’s a different world today (than when she started her career without a college education). I got my education on the job,” Charlie observes, hoping to emphasize the importance of education.

“My daughter (Taylor) is 17, she’s a senior now. I’ve tried to encourage her to do well in school. One of the most important things is going to school every day, making good grades, avoiding trouble,” Charlie counsels, advice that has helped lead Taylor to attending Texas A&M next year.

“I’ve encouraged her to stay on that track to get a good education, get a good job.

“You can do whatever you want to do, you’ve just got to apply yourself,” Charlie says.