Denison Loses Leader Wayne Cabinass
BY Jerrie Whiteley

Herald Democrat
Tuesday, October 12, 2010

"He really loved this town," former Denison mayor Ronnie Cole said Tuesday afternoon about Wayne Cabaniss, also a former mayor of Denison.

Mr. Cabaniss, 70, passed away Tuesday at Texoma Medical Center. Services are pending with Bratcher Funeral Home.

Diana Williams, who worked with Mr. Cabaniss at Landmark Bank, said she never met anyone who knew him and didn't like him.

"He was the most awesome leader I have ever met. He didn't care if he was talking to someone with mud on his boots or the leader of a corporation," she said. "He didn't have a big ego."

She and Cole agreed that Mr. Cabaniss' love of the city of Denison extended to its football team. "He was a huge fan of the Yellow Jackets," she said.

Mr. Cabaniss was born on May 28, 1940 in Arkansas. In 1960, he started KMAD radio station in Madill, Okla. He married Betty Jane Orr. In 1963, he started the Sandbass Festival in Madill.

Two years later, he went to work at a bank in Madill. While in Madill, Mr. Cabaniss and his wife had three children, Sandy, Danny and Charley.

The family moved to Denison when Mr. Cabaniss was offered the job at vice president at Citizens Bank in 1974. He stayed there until 1979, Williams said. He returned to Madill in 1979 as president of the First National Bank in Madill.

In 1985, he returned to Denison with what is now Chase Bank. In 1997, he started Landmark Bank in Denison as president and he later became its district executive.

Along the way, Williams explained, he served as mayor of the city of Denison from 1994 to 1998, on the Denison Development Alliance, Chamber of Commerce and in the Denison Rotary Club, just to name a few of his many civic activities.

"He even had a street named after him in Denison," Williams said. "He was president of both the Madill and the Denison chambers," she added.

Tony Kaai of the DDA said he met Mr. Cabaniss when he applied for the position with DDA.

"He loved life. He loved people and his integrity was beyond reproach," Kaai said.

"He lived his faith and practiced it every day in whatever he did," he said. He added that Mr. Cabaniss was the "ultimate economic developer."

Kaai said Mr. Cabaniss was instrumental in getting the 4A Economic Development Corporation package passed in Denison in 1996.

That effort, among many others on behalf of the city, was honored, Kaai said, when the city named a street after Cabaniss in the Industrial Park. Williams said he was also named Citizen of the Year at one point in both cities.

"He loved the lake. He and Betty would go out there and just sit and watch the sunset," Williams said.

Mr. Cabaniss was instrumental in the founding of Park Side Baptist Church in Denison.

Pastor Chet Haney said Tuesday that the news of Mr. Cabaniss' passing was still hard to take.

"We are just trying to get used to the idea of Denison, Texas, without Wayne Cabaniss -- and there is just something not right about that," he said.

Haney acknowledged Mr. Cabaniss' involvement in helping to pick the church's current location and said it was just the sort of thing people expected of Mr. Cabaniss. He found a spot he thought would be good for the church and he stayed true to that plan, helping the project along until it succeeded.

"We are kinda standing on his shoulders so to speak," he said. "He was a very loyal friend who would stick with you through thick and thin. He would give good advice (if you asked for it) and he would call you for no particular reason just to stay in touch."

He added that even though many people know about the great business and financial acumen Mr. Cabaniss possessed, some might not know about his other gift.

"He had the gift of encouragement," Haney said. "He could make you believe in yourself when you didn't before. He could draw abilities out of people that they didn't even know they had."

Mr. Cabaniss and his wife have eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.