June Crane helped lead the way for women working in the insurance industry in Longview.
Crane recently retired after working more than 50 years in insurance offices around Longview, most recently for Bockmon, Knight & Traylor Insurance.
“You have to have a tough skin,” Crane said recently while sitting behind her desk for one of the last times. She turned 88 this past week.
“I like people. I like talking to people,” she said, explaining why she stuck with the work for all these years and how she became successful selling to businesses. “I tell them, ‘I’m being nosy because I have to know a lot about your business, but, rest assured, it stays with me or the underwriter. We don’t talk about it.’ “
Tommy Knight, at Bockmon, Knight & Traylor, described her as a “pioneer for women in the insurance field, competing, and winning, in a male-dominated word for over 50 years.”
“I’m not saying any job is easy, but this one is certainly hard. When someone contacts us, it is because they have a problem, and it could cost them if things aren’t done right,” he said. “We often have to tell good people things they don’t want to hear, like ‘Yes, your premium is going up or, no, that loss is not covered. June’s longevity is a testament to her customer services attitude, talent and concern for others. Very few can do what she has done for as long as she has done it.”
The Bossier City native moved to Longview with her husband, Glyn, in 1959. They had been married for 67 years when he died in 2021. They had three sons, with the second and third born after they moved to Longview. Her children were her motivation for finding her place in the industry and remaining there so long.
She worked first for Roy Leach Claims Service, then Transamerica Insurance. From there, she and two men who worked there opened their own agency.
“That’s why I got my license to sell in 1979,” she said.
Later, she left to work at Hibbs-Hallmark and Threlkeld.
“I was just working in the office, and (Ken Threlkeld) came through one day, and said, ‘June, you have sold more insurance sitting here in the office than some of the men have working out in the field.’ “
He wanted her to start selling outside of the office. She said no at first, but then agreed.
“I said, ‘I will on one condition: If I don’t like selling, you’ll let me come back to the office,’ ” she said.
The company gave her a car to use while calling on customers and potential customers.
“So the first place I went was Hamburger Factory,” a restaurant that at one time was located on Alpine Road, she said.
When she returned a few days later with a quote for the owner, she secured her first customer. The restaurant’s owner also owned The Shed, a steakhouse, and she landed another policy for that restaurant, too
It was different for a woman to be out selling insurance, unusual, she said, and she believes that’s why many of her clients bought their insurance through her. She didn’t let rejections bother her.
She described her approach. She’d walk into a business and ask to speak to the person in charge of insurance. If that person said, “We don’t need any insurance today,” she had a standard response.
“Say, ‘thank you,’ and smile,” she said.
Crane said she worked hard, calling on some people she knew and others that she didn’t.
“I did a lot of cold calling,” she said.
The breast cancer survivor landed some big policies, with a lumber company, an oil company and a Kilgore restaurant whose owner she knew. They both had gone through breast cancer.Â
“I was the first woman to actively get out and call on people like that, here in Longview,” she said. She also sold in places such as Waskom and Jefferson. She said she sold policies with premiums from $50 to $1 million.
Crane has retired from the industry once before, in 2005, when she was working for a different agency. Later, Danny Bockmon asked her to return to work. She said no the first time, but accepted the offer when he asked again three years later, Crane recalled.
“I was tired of staying home,” she said, and she’s been there for 19 years. She praised the agency for being a good employer.
Now, she said it’s time for her to retire again.
“Past time,” she said. She has friends she regularly spends time with, and she said she’ll be looking for somewhere to volunteer.
Crane attributes her long, successful career to prayer and honesty. She recalled someone advising her once to go to work at a larger company so she would make more money. She asked if it would cost her customers more money. The answer was yes. She declined the offer.
“Do what is best for your customers, and the other things will come,” Crane said.
