Mills B. Lane Jr., Atlanta Banker, Is Dead at 77
By GLENN FOWLER
Published: May 10, 1989
Mills B. Lane Jr., an Atlanta banker who exerted strong influence in Southern politics in the 1960's, died Sunday at his home in Savannah, Ga., where he had lived in retirement for 16 years. He was 77 years old.
Mr. Lane had been in poor health for five years and seriously ill with heart problems for 18 months.
Mr. Lane was the head of Citizens and Southern National Bank, an institution founded by his father that he served successively as president, vice chairman and chairman from 1946 until 1973. For a time in the younger Mr. Lane's stewardship, Citizens & Southern was the largest bank in the South and the most profitable among the 50 largest banks in the nation.
But Mr. Lane cast a much larger shadow, becoming a leading figure in Atlanta and Georgia politics in the years in which blacks made racial strides in a New South that would send Jimmy Carter to the White House a decade later.
Mr. Lane was also a relentless civic booster for Atlanta, playing a major role in bringing major-league sports to the city by supplying the seed money to build the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, home of the baseball Braves and the football Falcons.
Mr. Lane was a puckish and unabashedly flamboyant banker. He was fond of touches like wearing a football uniform to work when he did not arrive in a flashy sports jacket and slacks. To promote Georgia's wool industry, he once herded a flock of sheep into the bank's building on Broad Street.
An antique-car fancier, Mr. Lane was fond of driving a toy car to a meeting of the bank's branch managers to, as he said, ''rev up'' competition.
''I'm just trying to bring some fun into a stodgy business,'' Mr. Lane said. He would frequently answer his office telephone, ''It's a wonderful world! Can I sell you any money?''
In politics Mr. Lane managed Ivan Allen Jr.'s successful campaigns for Mayor of Atlanta in 1961 and 1965. The two men had been the only members of the city's business leadership who in 1960 moved to negotiate with Atlanta's black religious and civic leaders to end a boycott of lunch counters. He also used liberal lending practices to foster minority-owned businesses.
Mr. Lane, who was born in Savannah on Jan. 29, 1912, was a 1934 graduate of Yale University.
He started at Citizens & Southern as an assistant cashier in Valdosta, Ga., and took over the bank's headquarters in Atlanta as president after his father's death in 1946.
He was on the board of The Bibb Company of Macon, a textile concern that was Georgia's largest industrial employer in World War II, for 36 years, and chairman from 1972 to 1974.
He retired from the bank in 1973 after suffering two heart attacks.
Surviving are his wife, the former Anne Waring; a son, Mills 4th, of Savannah; a daughter, Anita, of Atlanta; two brothers, Hugh, of Charleston, S.C., and Edward, of Valdosta, and a sister, Mary Morrison of Savannah.
Informant: Steve Beaty, 2014
Son of Mills Bee Lane, Sr. and Mary Comer
Husband of Anne Waring Lane
By GLENN FOWLER
Published: May 10, 1989
Mills B. Lane Jr., an Atlanta banker who exerted strong influence in Southern politics in the 1960's, died Sunday at his home in Savannah, Ga., where he had lived in retirement for 16 years. He was 77 years old.
Mr. Lane had been in poor health for five years and seriously ill with heart problems for 18 months.
Mr. Lane was the head of Citizens and Southern National Bank, an institution founded by his father that he served successively as president, vice chairman and chairman from 1946 until 1973. For a time in the younger Mr. Lane's stewardship, Citizens & Southern was the largest bank in the South and the most profitable among the 50 largest banks in the nation.
But Mr. Lane cast a much larger shadow, becoming a leading figure in Atlanta and Georgia politics in the years in which blacks made racial strides in a New South that would send Jimmy Carter to the White House a decade later.
Mr. Lane was also a relentless civic booster for Atlanta, playing a major role in bringing major-league sports to the city by supplying the seed money to build the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, home of the baseball Braves and the football Falcons.
Mr. Lane was a puckish and unabashedly flamboyant banker. He was fond of touches like wearing a football uniform to work when he did not arrive in a flashy sports jacket and slacks. To promote Georgia's wool industry, he once herded a flock of sheep into the bank's building on Broad Street.
An antique-car fancier, Mr. Lane was fond of driving a toy car to a meeting of the bank's branch managers to, as he said, ''rev up'' competition.
''I'm just trying to bring some fun into a stodgy business,'' Mr. Lane said. He would frequently answer his office telephone, ''It's a wonderful world! Can I sell you any money?''
In politics Mr. Lane managed Ivan Allen Jr.'s successful campaigns for Mayor of Atlanta in 1961 and 1965. The two men had been the only members of the city's business leadership who in 1960 moved to negotiate with Atlanta's black religious and civic leaders to end a boycott of lunch counters. He also used liberal lending practices to foster minority-owned businesses.
Mr. Lane, who was born in Savannah on Jan. 29, 1912, was a 1934 graduate of Yale University.
He started at Citizens & Southern as an assistant cashier in Valdosta, Ga., and took over the bank's headquarters in Atlanta as president after his father's death in 1946.
He was on the board of The Bibb Company of Macon, a textile concern that was Georgia's largest industrial employer in World War II, for 36 years, and chairman from 1972 to 1974.
He retired from the bank in 1973 after suffering two heart attacks.
Surviving are his wife, the former Anne Waring; a son, Mills 4th, of Savannah; a daughter, Anita, of Atlanta; two brothers, Hugh, of Charleston, S.C., and Edward, of Valdosta, and a sister, Mary Morrison of Savannah.
Informant: Steve Beaty, 2014
Son of Mills Bee Lane, Sr. and Mary Comer
Husband of Anne Waring Lane
Mills B. Lane Jr., Atlanta Banker, Is Dead at 77
By GLENN FOWLER
Published: May 10, 1989
Mills B. Lane Jr., an Atlanta banker who exerted strong influence in Southern politics in the 1960's, died Sunday at his home in Savannah, Ga., where he had lived in retirement for 16 years. He was 77 years old.
Mr. Lane had been in poor health for five years and seriously ill with heart problems for 18 months.
Mr. Lane was the head of Citizens and Southern National Bank, an institution founded by his father that he served successively as president, vice chairman and chairman from 1946 until 1973. For a time in the younger Mr. Lane's stewardship, Citizens & Southern was the largest bank in the South and the most profitable among the 50 largest banks in the nation.
But Mr. Lane cast a much larger shadow, becoming a leading figure in Atlanta and Georgia politics in the years in which blacks made racial strides in a New South that would send Jimmy Carter to the White House a decade later.
Mr. Lane was also a relentless civic booster for Atlanta, playing a major role in bringing major-league sports to the city by supplying the seed money to build the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, home of the baseball Braves and the football Falcons.
Mr. Lane was a puckish and unabashedly flamboyant banker. He was fond of touches like wearing a football uniform to work when he did not arrive in a flashy sports jacket and slacks. To promote Georgia's wool industry, he once herded a flock of sheep into the bank's building on Broad Street.
An antique-car fancier, Mr. Lane was fond of driving a toy car to a meeting of the bank's branch managers to, as he said, ''rev up'' competition.
''I'm just trying to bring some fun into a stodgy business,'' Mr. Lane said. He would frequently answer his office telephone, ''It's a wonderful world! Can I sell you any money?''
In politics Mr. Lane managed Ivan Allen Jr.'s successful campaigns for Mayor of Atlanta in 1961 and 1965. The two men had been the only members of the city's business leadership who in 1960 moved to negotiate with Atlanta's black religious and civic leaders to end a boycott of lunch counters. He also used liberal lending practices to foster minority-owned businesses.
Mr. Lane, who was born in Savannah on Jan. 29, 1912, was a 1934 graduate of Yale University.
He started at Citizens & Southern as an assistant cashier in Valdosta, Ga., and took over the bank's headquarters in Atlanta as president after his father's death in 1946.
He was on the board of The Bibb Company of Macon, a textile concern that was Georgia's largest industrial employer in World War II, for 36 years, and chairman from 1972 to 1974.
He retired from the bank in 1973 after suffering two heart attacks.
Surviving are his wife, the former Anne Waring; a son, Mills 4th, of Savannah; a daughter, Anita, of Atlanta; two brothers, Hugh, of Charleston, S.C., and Edward, of Valdosta, and a sister, Mary Morrison of Savannah.
Informant: Steve Beaty, 2014
Son of Mills Bee Lane, Sr. and Mary Comer
Husband of Anne Waring Lane
By GLENN FOWLER
Published: May 10, 1989
Mills B. Lane Jr., an Atlanta banker who exerted strong influence in Southern politics in the 1960's, died Sunday at his home in Savannah, Ga., where he had lived in retirement for 16 years. He was 77 years old.
Mr. Lane had been in poor health for five years and seriously ill with heart problems for 18 months.
Mr. Lane was the head of Citizens and Southern National Bank, an institution founded by his father that he served successively as president, vice chairman and chairman from 1946 until 1973. For a time in the younger Mr. Lane's stewardship, Citizens & Southern was the largest bank in the South and the most profitable among the 50 largest banks in the nation.
But Mr. Lane cast a much larger shadow, becoming a leading figure in Atlanta and Georgia politics in the years in which blacks made racial strides in a New South that would send Jimmy Carter to the White House a decade later.
Mr. Lane was also a relentless civic booster for Atlanta, playing a major role in bringing major-league sports to the city by supplying the seed money to build the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, home of the baseball Braves and the football Falcons.
Mr. Lane was a puckish and unabashedly flamboyant banker. He was fond of touches like wearing a football uniform to work when he did not arrive in a flashy sports jacket and slacks. To promote Georgia's wool industry, he once herded a flock of sheep into the bank's building on Broad Street.
An antique-car fancier, Mr. Lane was fond of driving a toy car to a meeting of the bank's branch managers to, as he said, ''rev up'' competition.
''I'm just trying to bring some fun into a stodgy business,'' Mr. Lane said. He would frequently answer his office telephone, ''It's a wonderful world! Can I sell you any money?''
In politics Mr. Lane managed Ivan Allen Jr.'s successful campaigns for Mayor of Atlanta in 1961 and 1965. The two men had been the only members of the city's business leadership who in 1960 moved to negotiate with Atlanta's black religious and civic leaders to end a boycott of lunch counters. He also used liberal lending practices to foster minority-owned businesses.
Mr. Lane, who was born in Savannah on Jan. 29, 1912, was a 1934 graduate of Yale University.
He started at Citizens & Southern as an assistant cashier in Valdosta, Ga., and took over the bank's headquarters in Atlanta as president after his father's death in 1946.
He was on the board of The Bibb Company of Macon, a textile concern that was Georgia's largest industrial employer in World War II, for 36 years, and chairman from 1972 to 1974.
He retired from the bank in 1973 after suffering two heart attacks.
Surviving are his wife, the former Anne Waring; a son, Mills 4th, of Savannah; a daughter, Anita, of Atlanta; two brothers, Hugh, of Charleston, S.C., and Edward, of Valdosta, and a sister, Mary Morrison of Savannah.
Informant: Steve Beaty, 2014
Son of Mills Bee Lane, Sr. and Mary Comer
Husband of Anne Waring Lane
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