Founder of Montgomery Bank dies at 96

SIKESTON, Mo. — Longtime Sikeston businessman and civic leader Joel Montgomery Sr. died Friday. He was 96.

Montgomery perhaps is best known as the founder of Montgomery Bank, of which there are locations in the St. Louis area and Southeast Missouri, including Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston, Dexter and Miner.

Born March 25, 1920, in Biggers, Arkansas, Montgomery developed his entrepreneurial spirit at a young age by selling vegetables grown by his family.

After serving in the U.S. Army, Montgomery moved to St. Louis and entered Washington University Law School. During this time, he joined the Dolan Real Estate Co., where Montgomery said he “found his life’s work” and came to realize he didn’t want to practice law but wanted to be a real-estate man.

In 1950, Montgomery bought land in Tennessee and moved his family to Memphis, Tennessee. He would build and develop over 6,000 homes, apartments and condominiums in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, including the first condominium project in Memphis.

In 1957, Tennessee-based Union Planters sought a new, stronger stockholder to buy Sikeston’s Planters Bank. Montgomery met the challenge.

After his purchase of Planters Bank, he moved his family to Sikeston, converted the charter to a national banking charter and renamed his bank the First National Bank.

In 2004, the bank’s name was changed to Montgomery Bank to honor its founder.

During his career, he was named Sikeston’s Man of the Year and was honored with the distinction of being listed as one of President George H.W. Bush’s “1,000 Points of Light.”

Montgomery also helped establish the nonprofit Sikeston Rescue Mission and the Bootheel Food Bank.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. today at the First United Methodist Church in Sikeston. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. today at the church. Burial will follow at the Garden of Memories Cemetery in Sikeston.