About Me

 It has been years since Thelma Hall-McLaughlin picked mulberries from the fruit tree on her family’s farm in Stone County. Since retiring as a banking executive and working for two federal financial compliance agencies, she spends her leisure time reading paperbacks with creased spines and walking along the sandy Pacific shores near Laguna Niguel, California. The Golden State has been her home since the late 1960s, yet McLaughlin has deep roots in Mississippi.

She was born to Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Hall, Sr. “We lived on 40 acres of land, and everything was from farm to table, ”McLaughlin said. “A lot of times, we did not have the means to go and buy stuff at the store, so my dad raised all our vegetables, and my mom did a lot of canning.” She developed respect and admiration for her parents’ hard work at an early age. McLaughlin’s father cultivated a strong work ethic in all seven of his children, starting the seeds of their successes. She recalls an active childhood where each person had a small but important role.

“Everybody had a job on the farm,” she said. “It was a team effort.”

Like an assembly line, McLaughlin and each of her siblings would follow in her father’s footsteps between field rows as they sowed sweet potatoes. Her father would plow the earth and poke divots in the rows. “Another kid would come behind and plant the sweet potato vine, and then another kid would come behind and pour water in the hole, and another kid would tighten the soil around the vine,” McLaughlin said. Her father worked at the pickle factory in Wiggins to make ends meet. Her mother kept house for Dr. Gordon McHenry, earning $3 per day.

Her parents made sure each of their children got an education and had the chance to attend college. “All of us have college degrees,” she said. McLaughlin graduated from Locker High School in 1965, where she enjoyed math. She knew she wanted to pursue a career in finance. At the time, McLaughlin could not attend many public universities for accounting because higher education was segregated. After high school, she went straight to Alcorn State University, a historically Black university, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She quickly became frustrated with job opportunities in Mississippi. McLaughlin said she was only offered jobs at the lowest rank and payscale despite being an honors student with nearly 30 hours of accounting and finance classes.

She decided to go West for better opportunities. Her parents borrowed $100 from the Bank of Wiggins with the help of Dr. McHenry. McLaughlin bought a $65 Greyhound bus ticket to Compton, California. It took two days to arrive. The bus rolled into the city around noon. McLaughlin was in awe. “I looked around, and I had never seen so much concrete,” McLaughlin said. “Everyone was just so close together.” With her qualifications, McLaughlin got a job as an accounting clerk making meager pay.

She first stayed with her aunt and uncle, fractioning nickels and dimes for a cup of coffee and a candy bar for lunch. Pretty soon, she was able to lease her own apartment. She excelled in her accounting clerk role and drew the attention of management. Within months she was asked to work at what is now Bank of America. McLaughlin enrolled in a bank management training program in 1971 and completed additional classwork. “At the end of that program, I was placed in a management role,” she said. “I just took off. I just never gave up.” McLaughlin became one of the first Black bank managers for Wells Fargo in California and joined the employment echelons where few women have roles today.

Over the years, she has served as the assistant vice president for the Wells Fargo mortgage and operations division, relationship manager for J.P. Morgan-Chase Bank, vice president of mortgage lending for the Bank of New York-Mellon, and as an executive vice president of Citibank.  

After retiring, she returned to work for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and oversaw bank closures in the aftermath of the 2008 Recession. When President Obama signed legislation to open the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau in Washington, D.C., McLaughlin was hired as one of the first investigative compliance managers. All through those corporate ranks, McLaughlin’s coworkers have asked her which Ivy League she attended. She corrects them and educates them on Locker High and Alcorn State University. “I am not where I am without the people in the Wiggins educational system,” she said. “I’ve got Mississippi dirt on my kneecaps.”

written by Lyndy Berryhill