Newspaper Clipping: Man of the Week: Orlando's Ike Mayfield · Greer Heritage Museum collection

Title

Newspaper Clipping: Man of the Week: Orlando's Ike Mayfield

Accession Number

2026.36.55

Accession Date

6 October 2026

Accession Creator

Sophie Pendergraft

Depositor

Agnes Dobson Bruce

Description

Newspaper clipping containing picture of Ike Mayfield with article "Man of the Week: Orlando's Ike Mayfield"

Creator

Orlando Sentinel Magazine

Contributor

Article written by Jean Reiman

Date

9 October 1966

Storage Location

Box 81, Folder 1

Text

LONER IN THE LOAN DEPARTMENT

Maverick Mayfield Does Not Conform To The Typical Banker Image, And It Pays Off For Orlando’s First National

By Jean Reiman

“IKE” MAYFIELD of the First National Bank at Orlando is a maverick in the banking business who cares little about fitting into the image of the typical banker.

Senior vice president in charge of all loan departments, Mayfield doesn’t hesitate to bluntly tell a customer he thinks a loan would be ill-advised. Many have called him later with thanks for talking them out of an untimely expansion or purchase which would have left them overextended.

MAN OF THE WEEK

He has saved the bank money, too.

Some time ago a prominent South Florida banker came to the First National requesting a loan.

Mayfield looked at him shrewdly, “You done passed too many banks between here and the West Coast for that collateral to be any good,” he finally stated. The next week the other was arrested on charges of fraud.

THIS SHREWD streak may be due to Mayfield’s upbringing in Greer, a small town in the South Carolina hills where his father was the town’s postmaster. After graduating from The Citadel in Charleston, Mayfield worked in Greer’s bank.

He was one of two bookkeepers in the small bank until the other left for Miami. Within a few months he had wired Mayfield urging him to get on the first train to Florida so he could make his fortune in that booming city too.

“I’ve seen property selling at $7,500 in the morning going for $100,000 by evening,” he chuckles. “Even got messed up myself. Guess I was the only darn fool to make a second payment on Boca Raton property!”

While still in South Carolina he had met a pretty college freshman, Kathryn Cannon. He kept in touch with her whenever he was home, and when she graduated from college she came to Miami to teach. She got there just before the collapse of the boom, which closed all except one of Miami’s banks.

MAYFIELD WAS able to get a job teaching school, also. However, on Feb. 1, 1930, he went to Columbia, S.C., with General Motors Acceptance Corporation. “Every day I was gone I was sorry I’d left Florida," insists Mayfield.

In 1933 “Kat” joined him and they were married.

She, too, had come to love Florida so both were pleased when the late Mr. Linton E. Allen, founder and then president of First National, came to Columbia to ask Mayfield to head the new installment loan department the bank was opening.

At this time only five or six banks in Florida made auto loans. With his experience in this field and banking Mayfield quickly set up a department which has been among leaders in the installment loan field.

IT WAS 10 years to the day after leaving Florida that the Mayfields returned. Within two years war had been declared and he entered the Navy, becoming a lieutenant commander in the Naval Air Corps. He returned to First National in November, 1945.

During his years in Orlando Mayfield has been active in the Kiwanis Club, American Red Cross, American Legion, the Masonic Lodge and the Chamber of Commerce. He has held office in both the Orange County Heart Association and the American Heart Association.

For 10 years he was on the official board of First Methodist Church and has been active in the Florida Bankers Association.

Mayfield cares little about the “image” of the typical banker. A member of the Orlando Country Club, he used to play golf, but: “Never could beat the game, and I let it beat me, so I gave it up.”

“KAT” MAYFIELD is an ardent bridge fan but hasn’t gotten her husband to share her interest in the game. “Never play if I can get out of it,” admits Mayfield, who prefers a game of gin rummy.

His love is fishing, but his friends are quick to remind him that he doesn’t catch many fish. Even if he doesn't, he still loves to try his luck at Homosassa and in the Ten Thousand Islands out of the Everglades. He insists he has ridden around each of these islands in his quest for snook and redfish.

The Mayfields have no children, but Tina, the Chihuahua purchased to help his asthma, rules the household. Tina has been with them on their several auto trips, and accompanies them to Highlands, N.C., each summer.

Three years from now Mayfield will reach automatic retirement age and the opportunity for more extensive travel, something he and his wife are anticipating with eagerness.