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People come first before business

by John Spink
Perry Cross, 85, enjoys a good cigar. Kentucky is known for its tobacco and the farmers and the surrounding communities use it for its purpose that the indians first used it for, to smoke.

Retirement is a word that doesn’t exist in Perry Cross’s vocabulary. Cross, 85, operates a loan institution.

Working about five days a week isn’t a burden for Cross because he enjoys the people he serves. For Cross, people come before business. He’s always happy to lend a helping hand to his customers.

Cross’s business is second in Albany, only to the barber shop, for chatting about current events in Clinton County. Friends stop by religiously to sit on the many chairs and couches and “chew the fat” about anything from crops to politics.

While the banks in Albany require secured collateral for a loan, the reputations of families who have graced Clinton County for generations are the only security Cross needs. Sometimes outsiders are forced to obtain loans from other loaning institutions, however, they can be bad risks.

Supporting a wife on a monthly teaching paycheck of just  $60 could also be a bad risk, so Cross put off marriage until he was 48. Then he met his wife Winnie on a date at a Monticello drug store.

They have two sons, David and Alvin. Alvin is a political writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Smiling proudly with a twinkle in his eye, Cross doesn’t hesitate to profess that Winnie is the best thing that ever happened in his life. She and a work ethic that doesn’t quit are his treasures – things he won’t lend.

June Irwin, Perry Cross’s secretary helps him find an outstanding account by the lamp on the counter. There are no computers, just hard copies on a Rolodex.
Perry Cross sits under the portraits of the 1947 Kentucky State Legislature which he was a part of. Sitting here, he will occasionally move from chair to chair waiting for a friend or customer.
Winfred Cross and Perry Cross, distant cousins, chat on a weekday morning in Perry’s office. Perry may have anywhere from two to 10 people stop in and chat each day. Winfred also took a small loan. Perry said he comes in now and then for a loan.
Perry Cross, his wife, Winnie, and their son David, who is a lawyer, sit down to eat dinner.
Perry Cross, who normally works close to 40 hours a week, leaves his office during a downpour of rain.
Perry Cross
A lone 100 dollar bill is placed under a wee used ash tray after a payment had been made. It remained there for about fifteen minutes in a staging area so to speak until the next cigar was finished and Perry got up from the chair to place it in the cash register drawer.
Perry spend many a day visiting his lawyer son Dave, next door or chatting with other nearby businessmen such as Maxey Avery in the doorway of his store.
Linda Sawyers gets mail for her father, Bobby Sawyers, from the mail box on Highway 1281 where they have a farm.
The confederate and U.S. flags fly from the sheds in the backyard of the home of Jimmy and Debbie Elmore. Satellite dishes are a rural luxury that beam movies and 24 hour sports and news across the cow pastures.
Willie Goodman, 69, gets his fruit and veggies assorted for sale along the roadside of 127. Peppers, tomatoes and apples are the specialty his brother, who is a farmer, grows. Because of severe arthritis, he is disabled and no longer farms.
Ira Tuggle, 77, takes care of the Albany First Church of the Nazarene where she attends church every Saturday. She says she has been getting the church in good shape for Sunday services for many years now.
Tennessee walking horses buck up to play with one another on the 100 acres of pasture belonging to Fredrick Smith. Smith shows the horses around the state. He has lived in Albany all his life and lives on route 4.
Rodney Smith, 20, claims he has jumped the famed 76 Falls some 20 to 30 times in his life. Many have jumped the falls, but there looms the danger of submerged cars which have led to the deaths of many jumpers. The falls are a favorites for lake boaters.