Historic Midland

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Above: Percy J. Mims and
Ray V. Hyatt, circa 1912
Below, left to right: San Smith,
JamesMims, Jamie Hunt, Brenda
Rose, Donna Horton, Bea Williams,
Sherry Phillips, Kim Turner, Brenda
Thomas, Roland Hale, Lacrisha
Wynne, David Mims, Brandee Noll,
Suzanne Butler, Brenda Smith, Joyce
Brumley, Linda Ford, and Tammy
Warner in June 1997 at 1030
Andrews Highway.
THIS IS A SAMPLE PHOTO CREDIT.
Even though Midland had only 12,000 or so
people, everyone did not get the message,
according to James Mims.
“We were just working away one day,” he
said, “when a man came walking up the steps
and through the door. He stopped and looked
around and said, ‘Well, whereinhell’s the telephone
company?’ We had to tell him they had
been gone for 10 years.”
In 1949, they remodeled their 205 W. Wall
location with an attractive storefront. Next door
was Hughes Jewelry. One night, thieves broke
into the insurance office, then cut a hole
through the wall attempting to reach the jeweler’s
vault. But the hole was too high, and the
vault turned out to be below the opening.
Because they had moved a map board over to
conceal their work, the hole wasn’t even noticed
until the Mims & Stephens employee whose
office held the hole came in to work
“Uh-oh, Santa’s been here,” he said. When
news of the incident hit the paper, Mims &
Stephens handed free tickets to the streams of
spectators coming to view the scene of the
“Nearly Great Burglary.”
In 1977, the company celebrated a third generation.
After graduating from Texas A&M, then
getting his Master’s in Business Administration
at Auburn, doing military service as Captain in
the U.S. Air Force, and working five years as
national bank examiner, David Mims came
home to the partnership.
In 1997, Mims & Stephens celebrated its
75th anniversary. Among honored guests were
Loys Lockler, 91, who had been a home economics
student of Mrs. Percy Mims in 1921,
and worked for Mims & Stephens 26 years, and
Virginia Warren, 92, who had worked for the
firm before and after World War II.
Today, although the process is now electronic,
Mims & Stephens still does business the way
they started—with the same consideration of
clients as friends, and with the same down-toearth
courtesies and common sense.
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