Larry Burns, president and CEO of The Cowboy Bank of Texas in Maypearl, has announced his retirement after 16 years with the bank and 55 years as a Texas banker. For the past 41 years, he has served in senior management at Texas community banks. Brandon Vaughan, executive vice president and chief lending officer of The Cowboy Bank of Texas, will succeed Burns as president and CEO on February 1. Burns will remain with the organization as a director.
Burns began his banking career at Park Cities Bank in Highland Park. A year later, he was hired by Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas. After spending a decade there learning operations, Burns was recruited to join First National Bank of Mount Vernon by its president and CEO, Ken Greer. Burns and his wife, Ruth, raised their children in the Northeast Texas community, spending 13 years in Mount Vernon and four years in Mt Pleasant.
In 1995, Burns joined Grandview Bank, and then in 2005, was named president and CEO of Maypearl-based First State Bank. In 2007, he changed the bank’s name to The Cowboy Bank of Texas. During his 16 years at the helm, the bank grew from a $20 million bank to more than $100 million—without branching. In 2015, Bank News named The Cowboy Bank of Texas one of three banks in the nation with the “DNA of a High-Performing Bank.” That success is most evident in the bank achieving a 16-year run of more than 21 percent return on investment annually.
During Burns’ 10 years at Grandview Bank, he invested heavily in Grandview civic organizations and started the Zebra Roundup, an all-star basketball event for small-school high school senior athletes. The event followed him to Maypearl in 2005, rechristened the Texas Roundup. During the program’s 20 years, at its peak more than 55 college coaches from D2, D3, NAIA and JUCO schools attended the Texas Roundup annually and signed many star athletes. In all, more than 600 high school seniors received scholarships through the program.
Established in 1930, The Cowboy Bank of Texas had assets of $100 million at the end of 2020.
